DEATH PENALTY. Former Special Assistant to the President (SAP) now senatorial aspirant Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go greets supporters in Cauayan, Isabela during the PDP-Laban campaign sortie on March 13, 2019. (Contributed photo)
CEBU CITY -- Senatorial candidate Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go said Wednesday he supports the call for the reimposition of the death penalty on heinous crimes after the brutal killing of Grade 9 student Christine Lee Silawan in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
The former Special Assistant to the President condemned the killing of Silawan, a resident of Barangay Mactan in the city.
Silawan was found dead on a vacant lot in Sitio Mahayahay, Barangay Bankal on Monday, naked from the waist down, with the skin on half of her face ripped off and her neck badly damaged.
“Naniniwala akong epektibong deterrent ang death penalty laban sa mga karumaldumal na krimen, katulad ng walang awa at mala-demonyong pagpatay at pagbalat pa sa mukha ni Christine Lee Silawan ng Cebu (I believe that the death penalty is an effective deterrent against heinous crimes, like the merciless and demonic-like killing and skinning of the face of Christine Lee Silawan of Cebu),” Go said in a statement.
He called on authorities “to do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators swiftly to the bar of justice.”
The cruelty the perpetrators did on Christine, which is inhuman, “is a stark reminder of the necessity for the revival of capital punishment for heinous crimes,” he said.
“One hundred percent na pabor akong patawan ng parusang kamatayan ang mga kriminal na mapatunayang gumawa ng mga heinous crimes, lalo na kung involving illegal drugs (I am 100 percent in favor of imposing the death penalty on criminals proven to have committed heinous crimes, especially those involving illegal drugs),” Go said, stressing that the same penalty should be meted out to criminals who have committed rape and murder while under the influence of drugs.
A student of the Maribago High School, Christine was reported missing by her mother on Sunday when she failed to return home after serving as church collector at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Barangay Pajac.
Police probers said based on their initial findings, Christine sustained a total of 20 stab wounds and nine more believed to be defense wounds, an indication that she tried to fight her attackers.
It can be recalled that re-introducing the death penalty was among President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s campaign promises in the 2016 presidential election.
In running for the Senate, Go has vowed to support Duterte’s programs and policies, including the campaign against illegal drugs and criminality.
He assured that Duterte is monitoring any development in the case involving the Cebu teenager’s barbaric death.
Capital punishment was reinstated in the country in 1993 through Republic Act 7659. But it was abolished through RA 9346 in 2006.
In March 2017, the House of Representatives approved its version of the death penalty bill, but the counterpart measure remains pending at the Senate.
Meanwhile, three opposition senatorial aspirants pushed for their various advocacies in separate events during their campaign sortie in Bacolod City in the past two days.
Former senator and presidential aspirant Manuel Roxas II, who traces his roots in Negros Occidental, vowed to continue working for lower prices of more medicines, if he successfully returns to the Senate in the May 13 elections.
As the author of the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008, Roxas said more medicines should be included in the law since there are new medicines in the market.
“When I go back to the Senate, I will work on that to bring down the prices further and include more medicines,” he added.
Roxas, who was a senator from 2004 to 2010, visited the Burgos North Public Market and met with representatives of various sectors at the Barangay Villamonte Gymnasium in this city on Wednesday.
His Otso Diretso partymate, reelectionist Senator Paulo Benigno Aquino IV, also visited Bacolod for a two-day campaign tour until Wednesday.
Aquino, who authored Republic Act 10644 or the Go Negosyo Act, said the establishment of Negosyo Centers may continue after the election period.
He said that since the law was implemented in 2015, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was able to reach its target by establishing more than 1,000 Negosyo Centers in the country.
In Negros Occidental alone, a total of 23 Negosyo Centers have opened in various towns and cities in more than three years.
For 2019, however, DTI-Negros Occidental said there is no capital outlay for the establishment of additional Negosyo Centers nationwide. “I think the agency is just waiting for the mid-term elections to be finished, but they will implement even more,” the senator said.
Aquino spoke in a multi-sectoral forum on Tuesday and in the free college education forum held at Carlos Hilado Memorial State College-Alijis Campus here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Senator Grace Poe, who was also in Bacolod for a campaign sortie on Tuesday, pushed for the approval of the bill creating a single agency in charge of sustainable water management and sanitation.
“There should be one water regulatory board not only for water but also for sewerage system which we don’t have yet,” she added.
In 2016, Poe filed Senate Bill 1217, or the proposed Water Regulatory Act, seeking to rationalize and streamline functions of various state agencies in terms of water regulation in that the independent body is mandated to set the policy for water supply, sewerage and septage management, issue licenses, and set, review or approve rates. (PNA)
