\n Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte urged lawmakers on Monday to bring back the death penalty as part of his internationally-condemned crackdown on narcotics in which police have already killed thousands.\n<\/p>\n
\n Buoyed by exceptionally high approval ratings and a legislature dominated by his allies, Duterte used his annual State of the Nation address to urge action on a key unrealised plank of his tough-on-crime stance.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I respectfully request congress to reinstate the death penalty for heinous crimes related to drugs as well as plunder,\" he said referring also to the nation's deep rooted corruption problem.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"My countrymen, it is a sad commentary that we cannot distinguish our need from our greed, our principles from prejudices,\" he told hundreds of assembled lawmakers, diplomats and celebrities in Manila.\n<\/p>\n
\n Though his campaign is the subject of a recently launched review by the United Nations' rights body and preliminary inquiry from International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors, he was defiant in his address.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Duterte -- extrajudicial killing -- report to the ICC,\" he said. \"If you can provide me with a good comfortable cell, heated during winter time... unlimited conjugal visits, we can understand each other.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n In May's mid-term elections Duterte allies won control of the Senate, which had stopped cold some of his most controversial proposals, including bringing back capital punishment.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, his allies, including the daughter of deceased former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the first head of Duterte's drug war, have said they would back the death penalty.\n<\/p>\n
\n Just as he began his 90-minute address he pointed to the popular support that underpins his brash rule, which faces censure for locking up detractors and attacking critical journalists.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"The latest survey results shows that my disapproval rating is 3 percent,\" he said to applause. It \"inspires me with determination to pursue relentlessly what we have started.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n Yet, Duterte's embrace of China is a weak spot among segments of the Philippine public and he devoted a long section of his speech to defending his stance.\n<\/p>\n
\n The sinking last month of a Philippine fishing vessel by a Chinese boat in the disputed South China Sea stoked simmering anger over the issue.\n<\/p>\n
\n Duterte set aside the once tense standoff over Beijing's extensive claims to the resource-rich waterway to court investment, but he faces accusations of trading away Philippine sovereignty.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"China also claims the property and he is in possession. That is the problem,\" the president said. \"We are claiming the same but we are not in possession.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I will send my marines there and drive away Chinese fishermen, I guarantee you not one of them will come alive,\" he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n His comments drew immediate rebukes from opposition lawmaker Risa Hontiveros.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"It appeared like it was not a Philippine president speaking but a representative of China,\" she wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte urged lawmakers on Monday to bring back the death penalty as part of his internationally-condemned crackdown on narcotics in which police have already killed thousands. Buoyed by exceptionally high approval ratings and a legislature dominated by his allies, Duterte used his annual State of the Nation address to urge action on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-41974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n