May 16, 2016•Update: May 22, 2016
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA, the Philippines
Philippines president-in-waiting Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to work toward re-imposing the death penalty after winning last week’s election on a crime-fighting campaign, local media reported Monday.
"What I would do is urge Congress to restore the death penalty by hanging, especially if you use drugs," GMA News quoted Duterte as telling reporters Sunday in southern Davao City in his first press conference since the polls.
In Duterte's 22 years as Davao City mayor, the 71-year-old imposed bans on public smoking, and the selling of alcohol and the operation of entertainment spots past midnight.
The Philippine Star reported Monday that an unnamed source said Duterte’s transition team was looking into re-introducing the death penalty -- abolished in the Philippines in 2006 -- so that it was “confined to heinous crimes, particularly drug trafficking and other high crimes”.
“They want to put safeguards that only the most guilty will be executed,” the source told the newspaper Sunday, adding that team members were consulting all sectors including the Catholic Church -- which opposes the death penalty.
On his watch as mayor, Duterte placed hundreds of surveillance cameras in strategic places all over Davao City to monitor criminal activities.
In 2015, however, Amnesty International alleged that “death squads” under his control were responsible for 700 extrajudicial executions in the region.
Duterte is reported to have responded that it was more like 1,700.
Under his governance, the city transformed from a crime ridden hovel to a peaceful and investment-friendly city.
