“What if there’s no God?”

President Rodrigo Duterte has this to say to critics of proposals to reinstate death penalty in the country who argue that only God can take a person’s life.

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READ: Duterte says he wants death penalty for revenge

Speaking before the oath-taking of Malacañang Press Corps officials, Duterte on Monday made a new pitch for the revival of capital punishment, lamenting that Filipinos nowadays disregard the law due to supposed lack of fear.

“Ang mga tao sa Pilipinas hindi na naniniwala sa batas because fear is not there (People in the Philippines don’t believe in the law because fear is not there),” Duterte said.

“Every President along the way would just say ‘what if there is no God?’ I believe in God but that is my perpetual question to Him: Where were You when we needed You?” he added.

The President noted that not everyone believes in God as there are atheists and agnostics.

The revival of death penalty is one of the main thrusts of the 17th Congress under Duterte, who is waging a bloody war against drugs and criminality.

In the House of Representatives, the first bill filed in the new Congress by no less than Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez seeks the reinstatement of capital punishment for heinous crimes through lethal injection. JE/rga

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