Abuse of death penalty by rogue cops feared

Scalawags among the police might exploit the threat of the death penalty by committing horrific abuses against suspected criminals, a prolife congressman said on Friday, following President Duterte’s renewed push for the revival of capital punishment.

Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza warned that if Congress heeded the President’s call, that would be tantamount to giving crooked cops ammunition to extort from victims.

“Once Congress revives the death penalty, these police crooks will surely brandish the death penalty as the Sword of Damocles to hang over the heads of their potential victims of kidnapping, extortion and evidence-planting,” the former Manila mayor said in a statement.

“There are many corrupt officers everywhere. In fact, no less than President Duterte himself at one point tagged the police as ‘rotten to the core’ and reckoned that four out of every 10 officers are engaged in all sorts of criminal activities,” Atienza said.

“Abuses are guaranteed to inflame once twisted officers have the ‘deathtrap’ at their disposal. They will have a heyday shaking people down with false or fabricated evidence,” he said.

He cited as examples the kidnapping-for-extortion and murder of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo by antinarcotics agents and the case of a police officer in Manila “who raped a 15-year-old girl in exchange for the freedom of her parents who were nabbed for alleged drug offenses.”

Atienza said Sen. Panfilo Lacson’s proposal to also inflict the death penalty on officers engaged in evidence-planting would not deter police rascals from perpetrating abuses.

Address BOC corruption first

“As demonstrated in previous cases, shady officers operate like syndicates and connive not only in committing abuses but also in protecting themselves against possible discovery,” he said.

To suppress illegal drug trafficking, Atienza urged the Duterte administration to first address the rampant corruption at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

“To begin with, customs corruption is the reason why billions of pesos worth of ‘shabu’ (crystal meth) in shipping containers continue to slip into our ports of entry and flood our streets,” he said.

“Besides capturing, prosecuting and locking up big-time traffickers, the government should also target devious officers who are recycling back into the market illegal drugs seized from raids and arrests,” Atienza said.

In his State of the Nation address on Monday, Duterte urged Congress to reinstate the death penalty “for heinous crimes related to illegal drugs and plunder.”

At least three bills have been filed restoring capital punishment and repealing the law that abolished it in 2006.

The 1987 Constitution states that the death penalty shall not be imposed although Congress may pass a law prescribing death for heinous crimes.

Such a law was passed during former President Fidel V. Ramos’ administration, but executions started only under Joseph Estrada’s term. Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo then issued a moratorium on executions, and a law was passed abolishing the death penalty in 2006.

In March 2017, a bill restoring the death penalty for major drug-related offenses was passed in the House but got stalled in the Senate.