Another lawmaker voiced his support on Tuesday for the proposal to study the reimposition of the death penalty, especially for drug-related crimes.

Pangasinan Rep. Arthur Celeste, chairman of the House Committee on National Defense, lamented that the abolition of the death penalty law in 2006 emboldened drug syndicates to act without fear.

“Our countrymen are fed up with heinous crimes, especially those that resulted from drug-related cases,” Celeste said. “The deterrence value of capital punishment hasn’t been fully felt since it was abolished early on its implementation.”

Celeste said the reimposition of the death penalty law through Congress will “send a strong signal to drug syndicates that crime does pay, that their happy days will soon be over.”

“Death Penalty is the defense we can have against dark forces spawned by the illegal drug trade,” he added.

Earlier, Reps. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City and Ruffy Biazon of Muntinlupa City called a renewed discussion and consideration of the proposal to impose death penalty on drug-related offenses.

This was their reaction to reports that a daughter of an anti-narcotics agent was abducted, drugged and raped. However, it later turned out that she was not raped.

“Death penalty for drug lords must be re-imposed and executed without delay,” said Cuenco, vice chairman of the House Committee on Dangerous Drugs.

Biazon said that unlike other heinous crimes like murder and rape which are usually rooted in emotions of the perpetrator, drug trafficking is primarily rooted in the motive of profit.

“Profit which is at the expense of other people’s lives that are ruined, maimed or killed. They know that their wares ruin lives, lead people to commit crime and destroy the moral fabric of society,” Biazon said.

Biazon said the abduction and rape of the daughter of the narcotics agent should signal the start of an “honest-to-goodness” war against drug traffickers.

“The crime is so heinous, so sinister and diabolical that it takes a particularly evil mind to conceive and do it. It is obviously a pre-meditated act, meant to hit back at the person who has been active in foiling the proliferation of the illegal drug trade,” he said.

“It was meant to hurt the agent in that instead of merely killing the victim, they let the child live through a harrowing experience and did things to her that only a sick mind would consciously think of doing.”