Catholic church denounces Philippine president's plan to execute five to six convicts daily

Catholic church leaders in the Philippines has described President Rodrigo Duterte's plan to execute five to six criminals daily as "barbaric."

Duterte has made it a legislative priority to restore the death penalty since he took office in June. It was abolished in 2006 due to fierce opposition from the Catholic Church.

"There was death penalty before but nothing happened. Return that to me and I would do it every day: five or six (criminals). That's for real," the Philippine president said on Saturday, according to AFP.

An official from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said that the Church is "totally opposed" to the president's plan.

"The Philippines will be viewed as very barbaric," Father Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of CBCP's public affairs office, told AFP.

"It's going to make the Philippines the capital of death penalty in the world," he added.

Before Duterte assumed office, he vowed to introduce executions by hanging and said that he did not want to waste bullets. He claimed that snapping the spinal cord was more humane than a firing squad.

The president suggested that the death penalty is a matter of retribution and not as a means to deter crime.

Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, the human rights chief of the U.N., wrote a letter to the Philippine congress this month to warn them that reviving the death penalty would violate the country's international obligations.

Duterte insisted on Saturday that the death penalty is necessary in order to fight the drug scourge which he said was "destroying" the country.

Some of the president's aides have dismissed his statements as hyperbole, but some human rights advocates are concerned about his remarks.

"Setting a quota for executions is just too much. One death is too much because we are talking about lives," Amnesty International Philippines vice chairman Romeo Cabarde told AFP.

Secillano said that bishops are planning to attend the congressional debates next month and discourage lawmakers from voting in favor of the death penalty.

More than 2,000 people have died at the hands of the police since the drug war was launched in July. Almost 4,000 more people were killed by unidentified gunmen, according to Phelim Kine, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.

A survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations revealed that 78 percent of Filipinos are afraid that they or someone in their family would become victims of extrajudicial killings.

The study indicated that a majority supports the war on drugs, but as many as 71 percent said that it was "very important" for the police to keep the drug suspects alive.