Sotto: Isolating drug traffickers better than reviving death penalty

Senate President Vicente Sotto III. FILE PHOTO / Henzberg Austria of Senate PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — Transferring high-level drug traffickers to regional penitentiaries  “might be a better option” than reviving the death penalty for such crimes, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said.

In an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel on Tuesday, Sotto said bills seeking the return of capital punishment in the country will probably have a “50-50 chance” of approval in the Senate should it be limited to high-level drug trafficking.

“It stands a better chance. Off hand, I could say I’ll have difficulty counting who will be in favor as far as the Senate is concerned, right now siguro, 50-50 chance but then again I have already filed an alternative [measure],” he said.

“Hopefully, if I get the chance to be able to explain to my colleagues and perhaps the executive department, this might work. This might be a better option, remove the high-level drug traffickers or even (inmates charged with) crimes on drugs from national penitentiaries,” he added.

During his penultimate State of the Nation Address on Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte called anew for the reimposition of capital punishment for crimes involving illegal drugs.

According to Sotto, confining high-level drug traffickers will be akin to a death penalty sentence.

“Proceed with the rehabilitation of regional penitentiaries and then confine these guys in a separate establishment or penitentiary,” he said.

“That is the proposal. Para na ring death penalty kasi nakahiwalay na sila [It’s more like a death penalty because they are isolated]. It will have the same effect. They will not be contaminating the other PDLs [persons deprived on liberty],” he added.

The senator had previously principally authored the reimposition of the death penalty for drug trafficking during the 9th Congress.

But capital punishment in the Philippines was abolished in 2016 under then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

While Sotto has a bill filed in the 18th Congress seeking to reimpose the death penalty for high-level drug trafficking, he said he “was kinda changing my mind to a certain point already.”

“As a matter of fact, I have proposed an alternative,” he said during the interview.

“The alternative is to remove these drug lords or high-level drug traffickers from the main NBP [New Bilibid Prison] or the main penitentiary,” he added.

Nevertheless, Sotto said he agrees with the revival of the death penalty but only for those convicted of high-level drug trafficking.

“I do believe those who are against the death penalty are correct, medyo maraming tama, for example anti-poor. Makakakuha ng magagaling na abogado yung mayayaman at yung mahirap ay hindi. Those who be only be meted with the death penalty will be the poor ones so those are the other crimes,” he pointed out.

(I do believe those who are against the death penalty are correct, there could be a lot of issues, for example anti-poor. Those who are rich can afford really good lawyers but those who have limited resources cannot. Only those who will be meted with the death penalty will be the poor ones so those are the other crimes.)

“But when it comes to high level drug trafficking, the anti-poor (issue) does not work because there are no poor drug lords. There are no high-level drug traffickers who are poor. That is the reason that I agree and I said if the president pushes for death penalty or lethal injection for death penalty it stands a better chance if it’s confined to high- level trafficking or [drug-related crimes],” he added.

JPV