Arrest and prosecution, not death penalty, deter crimes — lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines — The certainty of arrest and prosecution, and not death penalty, will be the proper deterrent to crimes, a party-list lawmaker said Wednesday.

“I believe it is not a deterrent into the commission of a crime. What is really a deterrent is the certainty of arrest and persecution, yun yung kulang natin,” AKO Bicol Rep. Alfredo Garbin Jr. said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel.

Even before President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for Congress to restore the death penalty for “heinous crimes related to drugs and plunder” during his fourth State of the Nation Address, several lawmakers have already filed bills at the House of Representatives seeking to restore the capital punishment.

READ: Death penalty House bills filed prior to Duterte’s Sona appeal

Garbin said that should these bills progress in the lower house, he will be consistent with his opposition to the death penalty as he had showed in the 17th Congress.

“I was consistent with my vote. I voted no in the 17th Congress and that’s why in the 18th Congress I joined again the minority purposely para panindigan pa rin yung aking boto sa death penalty,” he said.

He added that several lawmakers have filed bills seeking to restore the capital punishment since many in the House of Representatives have been supportive of its revival.

“The thing is we have a bicameral Congress that even if it is passed in the House, if it is not supported in the Senate wala pa rin yun. So it should be actively acted upon by two Houses of Congress,” he said.  /muf