Senator Manny Pacquiao appears to be willing to go to great lengths just to ease the burdens of President Rodrigo Duterte.

To show his concern for Duterte and his support for the leader’s pet campaign, the senator said he was willing to go to jail just so he could kill the drug lord behind the alleged P6.8-billion worth of smuggled shabu that recently entered the country.

The senator made the declaration in an interview with reporters on Wednesday, August 15, a day after Duterte himself denied the huge drug shipment ever happened. The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has also  backtracked on its initial finding that there was shabu in the shipment.

The senator was initially reacting to questions on the President’s statement that he thought of resigning out of frustration with the persistence of corruption in government. Pacquiao said he  understood where Duterte was coming from, given the country’s problems, including the one-ton smuggled shabu.

The neophyte senator said the culprit deserved to be executed by firing squad for being stubborn despite Duterte’s war on drugs.

“Kung ako, i-firing squad talaga kasi ang tigas talaga ng ulo. Ewan ko kung Pilipino ang gumagawa o foreigners. Gusto ko masampolan ang foreigners na gumagawa, nagpapasok dito sa ating bansa (If it were up to me, I would have the drug lord killed by firing squad for being hard-headed. I am not sure if its manufactured by Filipinos or foreigners. I want to make an example of the foreigners who smuggle the illegal drugs into our country),” Pacquiao said.

“Para sa akin, walang batas-batas para madisiplina [sila]. Wala silang takot eh. Can you imagine two years campaign, war against drugs, nagpasok pa talaga ng P6.8 bilyon na shabu (I’ll set aside the law to discipline them. Because they are fearless. Can you imagine, with two years of war against drugs, they still smuggled P6.8 billion of shabu)?” he added.

Under the Marcos regime, drug trafficking was punishable by death by firing squad. The 1987 Constitution prohibited the death penalty but allowed Congress to reinstate it for heinous crimes. The death penalty was reimposed in 1993, but was abolished in June 2006.

Asked about this, Pacquiao, a pastor, said he would rather be imprisoned so he could get rid of the supposed drug lord.

“Kapag mga ganyan tapos di nila susundin ang batas wala silang takot sa batas, magpapakulong na lang ako para ko ma-firing squad ‘yung drug lord na ‘yun na nagpasok sa Pilipinas (If that’s the case, they won’t follow our laws, they do not fear our laws, I would rather be jailed so I could execute the drug lord by firing squad),” he said.

The House of Representatives has approved the bill reinstating death penalty. Counterpart measures, however, remain pending in the Senate, with senators strongly blocking it.

Despite this, the athlete-turned-senator said he would continue to push for the death penalty for big-time drug pushers. (READ: House panel to compel PDEA chief to attend P6.8-B shabu shipment hearing) – Rappler.com