MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday said it would fully support the reimposition of death penalty as pushed by President Rodrigo Duterte in his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA).
PNP chief Police General Oscar Albayalde said imposing capital punishment for drug-related heinous crime and plunder will add more power to the government’s campaign against war, drugs and corruption.
In response to the SONA of President Duterte, the PNP fully supports the legislative agenda of the national government for effective legislation that will add more teeth to the crusade against crime, drugs and corruption, particularly by imposing capital punishment for drug-related heinous crime and plunder, among others,” he told reporters in a press briefing in Camp Crame on Tuesday.
“I firmly believe that the deterrent effect of the certainty of punishment will be a game changer in our continuing campaign against illegal drugs, heinous crime and corruption, particularly against drug traffickers, smugglers and peddlers of illegal drugs,” he added.
However, the PNP chief maintained his position that the country’s justice system should be fixed first.
“Ang importante dito ay we convict those people na talagang we know that they are guilty. ‘Yan ‘yung stand natin,” he stressed.
(What’s important here is we convict those people who are really guilty. That is the PNP’s stand.)
When it comes to the proposed mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) program in Grades 11 and 12, Albayalde believes this will embed “very important” values on the Filipino youth.
Albayalde added that the president might be pushing for the mandatory program in Senior High School as he believes Filipinos are now lacking in love of country.
Aside from instilling values, the PNP chief said the mandatory ROTC will also help in the country’s defense in case of war.
“The very important value there is the sense of nationalism, love of country at patriotism sa Pilipino lalo na sa mga kabataan… of course, napakaliit nating bansa, we have to defend our country in case of war,” he said.
(The very important value there is the sense of nationalism, love of country at patriotism in Filipinos, especially in the youth… our country is small, we have to defend our country in case of war.)
Duterte presented the same argument in his SONA on Monday when he asked Congress to pass measures that will improve the country’s defense system.
Albayalde added that having training in terms of defense will be good for everybody. (with details from Lea Ylagan)
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