MANILA, Philippines — Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa is once again trying to bring back the death penalty for high-level drug traffickers, citing a supposed surge in heinous crimes.

“If I get the chance, I’ll refile this never-ending death penalty bill for big-time drug traffickers. This doesn’t include the small-time pushers on the streets—only the big fish,” Dela Rosa said in a radio interview.

Dela Rosa said that the proposal has repeatedly failed to gain traction due to its controversial nature. Still, he insists that capital punishment is the “solution” to the country’s crime problems.

To bolster his argument, the senator pointed to recent incident, including the case of a 14-year-old Chinese student in Taguig City who was kidnapped and had a finger cut off, and a Cebu man allegedly high on drugs who murdered his wife and children. 

He also cited separate cases of a three-year-old and an 80-year-old who were both raped and killed.

According to Dela Rosa, these are committed by people under the influence of drugs, and only a heavy-handed approach will work.

“You can’t beat illegal drugs with a soft approach or by acting all decent. You need an iron fist. Otherwise, these syndicates will just laugh at you,” he said.

The senator, who once headed the Bureau of Corrections, also claimed that a convicted Chinese drug lord told him that traffickers see the Philippines as a safe haven since it lacks capital punishment.

“They said that in other countries, they’d be executed if caught. But here, they just serve time in Bilibid while still running their drug trade,” he recounted.

Dela Rosa has been pushing for the death penalty since he became senator in 2019. 

He led the Duterte administration’s drug war, which resulted in at least 1.6 million surrenders and an estimated 12,000 to 30,000 deaths, according to human rights watchdogs.

The number of extrajudicial killings linked to the campaign remains a contentious issue, as the International Criminal Court is considering an investigation into the “bloody” war on drugs, in which Dela Rosa and former President Rodrigo Duterte are among several individuals accused of crimes against humanity committed at the height of the campaign.