Manny Pacquiao is getting plenty of hits these days, not in the boxing ring though but in the political arena where public perception is crucial.
The Filipino boxing icon is a Senator in the Republic of the Philippines and he has been voicing his support for the restoration of the death penalty in the country through legislation.
Many of Pacquiao’s critics believe that they find it surprising that an avid Christian who puts a premium on his Christian values would support something that would take away the life of a human being.
They are saying that it is already stated in one of the 10 commandments that thou shall not kill. However, Pacquiao believes that it is different from the death penalty as a punishment, even citing at several points that God believes in the death penalty.
Pacquiao thinks that God showed his wrath and put an end to Sodom and Gomorrah which have both fallen to sins. He also elaborated how God cleansed the earth during the time of Noah when he had the great flood and kill all people with the exception of Noah and his family to indicate that He wants to start again from the beginning, reports ABS-CBN News.
A deterrent to crimes
Just like President Rodrigo Duterte, whom Pacquiao supports a lot, the Filipino boxing icon believes that the death penalty would be a deterrent to heinous crimes, particularly offenses involving drugs.
He said that drug traffickers and coddlers would think twice before committing offenses if the death penalty is reinstated.
Pacquaio said that the death penalty is very much like the whipping stick of his mother when he was still young.
The Senator defended before the Senate justice committee his Senate Bill 185 which would impose the death penalty on certain heinous crimes involving dangerous drugs, reports GMA News.
He revealed that if his mother did not discipline them with the stick even at their young ages, they would have grown to be bullheaded. Back then, he also recalled that if his mother, more popularly known as Mommy D or Mommy Dionisia, asks them to do something and they do not oblige, they get to taste the whipping stick.
Pacquiao went on to elaborate that Mommy D had house rules that they can play all they want in the streets or outside their house but they have to be home by 5 o’clock or they get to feel the stick on their buttocks or their legs, which Mommy D often puts right outside their house to remind her children of the rule.
So when he and his siblings realized that the stick was quite huge, they will surely abide by their mother’s directive and no more question asked.
Just like the death penalty
Pacquiao then related his personal experience to the need for a death penalty law. He believes that the death penalty will help eradicate crimes involving drugs.
He said that while the government is now starting to address those drug users who have already surrendered by putting them in rehabilitation, the death penalty or the stick should also be shown to them so that they will not even think of going back to their old ways
Pacman strongly lobbies for the death penalty for drug traffickers, coddlers, and pushers in line with the goal of President Duterte to get rid of the drug menace in the Philippines.
Meanwhile, Director General Isidro Lapeña of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said he supports the death penalty bill filed by Pacquiao.
Lapeña explained that in other countries where Filipinos are being apprehended for illegal drugs, they are executed because they have the death penalty, so if on a reciprocity basis, then the Philippines should have the punishment as well.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Dante Gierran, for his part, said he was personally opposed to the death penalty, except in cases of heinous crimes. He made his position heard during the deliberation on the bill filed by Pacquiao in the Senate recently.