The chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on Wednesday said those caught with at least 50 grams — or about 10 teaspoons — of narcotics should be “enough” to be meted a “death penalty.”
This PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said as he backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for the death penalty’s revival.
The arrest of drug traffickers with this amount of drugs takes “a lot of work and a lot of surveillance,” said Gamboa.
“You cannot just apprehend somebody and confiscate the 50 grams,” Gamboa told ANC during an interview.
“Siguro maglalaro doon: 50 [grams] to 1 kilo—I think that’s enough na dapat i-impose ang death penalty (Perhaps it will range there: 50 grams to 1 kilo—I think that’s enough to impose the death penalty.),” said Gamboa.
On Monday, Duterte, in his State of the Nation Address (SONA), urged lawmakers to reinstate the death penalty by lethal injection for crimes linked to narcotics.
Some arrested suspects said trafficking drugs in the Philippines was convenient “because there is no drug penalty here,” Gamboa “The reimposition of the death penalty would definitely be a deterrent in our campaign against illegal drugs,” he said.
There is no evidence that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to the drug trade, according to a study by rights group Harm Reduction International.
“Those studies are good for the legislators to ponder upon,” said Gamboa.
“But on the side of the Philippine National Police, we believe that it is a deterrent,” he said./Stacy Ang
