{"id":263789,"date":"2020-08-02T05:43:25","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T09:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=263789"},"modified":"2020-08-02T05:43:25","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T09:43:25","slug":"pacc-renews-push-for-death-penalty-for-corrupt-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/08\/02\/pacc-renews-push-for-death-penalty-for-corrupt-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"PACC renews push for death penalty for corrupt officials"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Greco<\/a>
PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica urged the Congress to reinstate capital punishment for corrupt officials, saying corruption is \u201cas bad as murder\u201d and \u201cas bad as illegal drugs\u201d because it also leaves a lasting effect on victims. (File Photo By Pacc888 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has renewed its call for the death penalty for corrupt officials after President Rodrigo Duterte himself brought it up during his fifth and penultimate state of the nation address (SONA) on July 27.<\/p>\n

PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica urged the Congress to reinstate capital punishment for corrupt officials, saying corruption is \u201cas bad as murder\u201d and \u201cas bad as illegal drugs\u201d because it also leaves a lasting effect on victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cIyan po ay<\/em>\u00a0original\u00a0na<\/em>\u00a0proposal\u00a0ko noon-noon pa, sir<\/em>\u00a0(That has been my proposal a long time ago). Corruption should be a heinous crime, categorized as a heinous crime, and should be penalized by death.\u00a0Ang sa amin nga noon by hanging pero okay naman din ang<\/em>\u00a0lethal injection (In the past, we wanted death by hanging, but lethal injection would be okay, too),\u201d he said in a Laging Handa public briefing on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Belgica said corruption should be considered a \u201cheinous crime\u201d because it sucks public funds dry, leaving Filipinos poverty-stricken.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorruption — I know, especially corruption from high ranking government officials should be treated as heinous crimes\u00a0para po<\/em>\u00a0(so that) to at least justice will be served,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Before the death penalty is reimposed, Belgica said there should be improvements made in the country\u2019s justice system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a strong justice system\u00a0kung saan hindi matagal ang kaso<\/em>\u00a0and we need more courts\u00a0para ho mabilis nalilitis ang kaso, hindi natatambak ho sa<\/em>\u00a0court (where cases don\u2019t take long and we need more courts so cases will be resolved without getting stuck in court),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In his SONA last Monday, Duterte asked Congress to pass a law reviving the death penalty for drug-related crimes.<\/p>\n

“I reiterate the swift passage of the law reviving the death penalty by lethal injection for crimes specified under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002,” Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Last Tuesday, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said lawmakers are unlikely to pass a measure reinstating the death penalty during the current session unless it will be applied to convicted drug lords.<\/p>\n

He said the Senate would do its best to tackle all of them within a year, but noted that the priorities are recovery and stimulus packages for the economy during the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

Duterte mentioned 21 priority bills during his speech, of which five were meant to address the prevailing health crisis.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the House Committee on Justice is set to start debates on the reimposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano promised the public a “very healthy” debate on the proposal to revive capital punishment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) has renewed its call for the death penalty for corrupt officials after President Rodrigo …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":226842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-263789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":263790,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263789\/revisions\/263790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}