DO WE need corrupt legislators to combat corruption or doped lawmakers to win the war against drugs?

We are on the second half of Duterte’s term. In his 4th Sona, President Rodrigo Duterte respectfully requested the honorable gentlemen of the lower chamber to reinstate death penalty for heinous crimes committed, most specifically on crimes related to drugs and plunder. His call is in concomitant to the ongoing war against illegal drugs and the deeply rooted corruption in the government.

The house of representatives has been accused as the fertile ground of corruption when some representatives misappropriated their congressional funds that composed of ghost projects and white elephants. Others in the congress were accused as narco-politicians and linked to drug traders. But we need these congressmen now, and I saw them in the national television nodding their heads in approval to the president’s request to reinstate death penalty for crimes related to drugs and plunder, as if none of them is soiled.

Well, let me paraphrase the storyline in John 8:1-11 about a woman who was caught on the very act of adultery. The Scribes and Pharisees brought the woman to Jesus to prosecute for the crime she committed which is according to the Law of Moses taught by the rabbis, is punishable to death by stoning. But contrary to what the Scribes, the Pharisees and we expect, the woman was acquitted under the doctrine of sovereign immunity “let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!”

Reinstatement of the death penalty is the last option for the president and his boys and girls in both houses. Let the cleaner or the least corrupt and slightest doped lawmakers sponsor the bill to reinstate death penalty as they deemed the country needs it. Should this become a law, this will be severe and would have a regrettable outcome to those who cannot abide with it. I am referring to the corrupt employees and elected officials in the government.

A Roman civil law’s maxim is “dura lex sed lex”, a Latin word which means “it is harsh, but it is the law.” If death sentence is harsh, never mind who reinstituted the law. But the thundering question in every congressman’s conscience remains, who will sponsor the death penalty bill for plunder as among the heinous crime?

Cayetano’s 15-month speakership is too short for the intense debate and bloody argument between the advocates and the critics of this matter, from the committee level to the plenary. However, if lobbying to support this bill will be twinned with the portioning-in and engaging into another corrupt practice of pegging substantial budget; then victory is guaranteed by enlisting these men for the war against drugs and corruption.

abrigodann@gmail.com