CHANGE POLICY ON DEATH PENALTY, SENATOR URGES

Sen. Ramon Revilla has urged President Arroyo to rethink her decision to
suspend implementation of the death penalty.

In a statement, the lawmaker from Cavite said the move "does not sit well"
with people who had worked to strengthen the law against illegal drugs.

"In last year's (State of the Nation Address), she laid the foundations of
her strong republic by crushing all forms of criminality, including drug
lords," he said.

"This message must be relayed with crushing impact to foreign and domestic
drug barons operating in the country, and the best way to do this is through
the immediate execution of convicted drug traffickers."

Revilla, a member of the Senate committee on illegal drugs, said drug
syndicates perceived the government as "rich in rhetoric but poor in
action," and that their operators are not afraid of the death penalty
because they have not seen it enforced.

"Although our laws punish drug traffickers with death, we haven't executed a
single drug lord or big-time trafficker since the reimposition of capital
punishment in 1994," he said.

"The next customer of the lethal injection chamber must be a big-time drug
lord or trafficker, and if possible let us perform the executions weekly
until we get rid of the drug menace," he added.

Revilla said the execution by lethal injection of a convicted drug
trafficker would have the same effect as the televised firing squad of
heroin trafficker Lim Seng during the early days of martial law in 1972.

"Drug lords (then) avoided the Philippines and ceased using our country as a
major transshipment point for their contraband," he said.

"Unlike now where we are notoriously ranked as among the top four producers
of shabu and other amphetamine-type stimulants together with China, Thailand
and the United Kingdom based on a United Nations International Drug Control
Program report."

Revilla said at least six major international crime syndicates have been
trafficking drugs in the country in cahoots with local gangs.

"Law enforcement agencies should concentrate their efforts at neutralizing
these foreign groups," he said.

"They are the ones who provide local drug syndicates with a steady supply of
the illegal drugs and funds to operate the clandestine (shabu) laboratories,
and the technical knowledge in the creation of other variants of shabu and
amphetamines."

Revilla said international drug syndicates will continue to operate in the
country "unless we show our determination to destroy them" through punitive
action.

"The signing into law of the amended Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 is only one
side of the equation. Political determination to enforce this law will be a
formidable foundation for a strong republic," he said.