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police visibility
MANILA – Battered by new wave of carjackings, killings and kidnap cases, President Benigno S. Aquino III directed the Philippine National Police to widen police visibility and improve law enforcement system.
Pres. Aquino
The President is also carefully studying the proposal of Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. to revive the death penalty, according to Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr.
The Chief Executive met with Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo and ranking police officials in the wake of the gruesome murders of two car dealers.
The President had summoned him, Robredo, Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Raul Bacalzo and National Capital Region Police Director Nicanor Bartolome to the Palace to address the twin killings and ensure the safety of the public.
At the meeting, Ochoa proposed to the PNP to step up visibility as a way of deterring criminal activities and allay fears of the public stemming from the murders of car dealers Emerson Lozano and Venson Evangelista.
According to the Executive Secretary, he has assured the police force that he would push for additional funding to boost the logistical support for peace and order and address criminality in the country.
“Our police, of course, have certain concerns that they want addressed immediately,” Ochoa said. “We will certainly help them but I ask them to make it more concrete, to propose it to me and I’ll do something about it.”
The capital punishment was abolished in 2006 and its proposed revival is being opposed by the Church and some lawmakers.
According to Ochoa, who is a lawyer, there are many schools of thought in bringing back the death penalty.
“Does the death penalty deter crime? If the death penalty is imposed now, will it stop crime? We really have to study its revival. The life imprisonment is already imposed. What’s more important is to arrest the real criminals and not fall guys,” Ochoa said.
Ochoa said the best solution is to improve the law enforcement system by heightening the training of the ranks of the Philippine National Police (PNP), National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and other related agencies.
The Palace official said they have already met with PNP and DILG officials on increased police visibility.
“We are ready to support them in terms of logistics,” Ochoa stressed.
“On top of that, President Aquino wants a heightened police visibility all over the country,” he added.
Last Wednesday, President Aquino said he fears that, at some point, with the judicial system still faulty, the innocent can wrongly be meted the death penalty.
“I will have to study that… But yung essence nito, our judicial system, as you know, is not perfect. There is a possibility that people can be wrongly convicted, especially if they do not have the ability to secure competent counsel,” the President said during the Liberal Party caucus at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City.
The Executive Secretary said there were enough existing laws to deal with various incidents of crime in the country and re-imposing death penalty would not guarantee immediate solution to criminality.
Ochoa, however, said he understood the sentiments of the people seeking to revive the death penalty law because of their frustration with the country’s criminal justice system.
“The solution to this is not just immediate. The solution we see is for us to improve our law enforcement system and genuinely and truthfully train our police and our people on how to address criminality in the country,” he noted.
Some politicians and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) have raised the idea of reviving the death penalty following the recent abduction and killing of two car dealers, including the son of former Marcos lawyer Oliver Lozano.