Death penalty creates system for punishing criminals over EJKs—Alvarez

Death penalty creates system for punishing criminals over EJKs—Alvarez (Photo: Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez/Facebook)

MANILA—House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday said the reimposition of the death penalty creates a process for punishing those who committed heinous crimes instead of having summary executions or extrajudicial killings (EJKs) as retribution.

“Kayo tanungin ko: anong gusto ninyo, merong death penalty bill na merong proseso o patayin na lang diyan yung mga criminal? (Let me ask you: Which do you prefer, having death penalty bill with a process or just kill criminals?),” Alvarez said in a press conference.

Alvarez mentioned the case of 23-year-old Liezyl Margallo and her former live-in partner Peter Gerard Scully who ran an international cyberpornography trade with clients from Brazil, Germany and America.

Margallo and Scully enticed young girls then forced these children to perform cybersex activities, even brutally torturing them while filming.

One of the controversial videos is called “Daisy’s Destruction” showing the torture and sexual abuse of an 18-month-old toddler named Daisy.

“Gusto n’yo bang buhayin yung mga ganung klaseng tao, pati one-year old inaabuso? (Do you want those kinds of people to live, even abusing a one-year-old child?),” said Alvarez.

“May sira na ang ulo niyan e. You don’t agree with me na sabihin natin talagang yan ba kayang gawin ng taong matino? Those are evil deeds; grabe walang awa. (They’re already crazy. You don’t agree with me, let’s say, can someone in his right mind do that? Those are evil deeds; (they have) no mercy),” he added.

Alvarez said he would prefer to have the police shoot the criminals who are caught in the act of committing the crime.

“Syempre, e di shoot to kill na lahat yan on sight, when you commit a crime, di ba? Ba’t mo pa huhulihin yan? (Of course, just shoot to kill (criminals) on sight when you commit a crime, right? Why do we still have to arrest them?),” he said.

He said those who oppose the death penalty must consider the position of the families of the victims of heinous crimes.

“It’s easy for us to say due process, don’t kill them; it’s easy for us to say because the heinous crimes did not happen to us. But what if it happens to us? To those who oppose death penalty, if that happens to you, would you still oppose it?”, Alvarez said.