In his second State of the Nation Address (Sona) on Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte called on Congress to pass the death penalty on drug-related offenses, insisting that in the Philippines a criminal who took one’s life should pay for the offense with his own life.

“I ask Congress to act on all pending legislation to reimpose death penalty on heinous crime,” Duterte said.

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He said the death penalty under the Revised Penal Code was not only meant for retribution but also to prevent the criminal from killing another person again.

“In the Philippines, it”s really an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Duterte said. “You took a life, then you must pay [for] it with life.”

He said he did not agree with the belief a criminal mind could be reformed.

“You can’t place premium on the human mind, that you will go straight. Nobody can,” he said.

Duterte decried that being too “lenient” on drug criminals, in the hope that they could be reformed, would only allow them to commit more crimes once released from prison.

“You are soon to be lenient about this son of a bitch, a human being that has a virulent brain and his enemy is society,” Duterte said. /atm/rga

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