British billionaire and philanthropist Richard Branson is known as a maverick, having grown his Virgin Group business empire in unconventional ways.
But even Branson, who returned to Manila on Wednesday after two decades to speak to Filipino businessmen, draws the line when human rights are involved.
鈥淭he death penalty is not a deterrent,鈥� Branson told about 800 businessmen who attended the ABS-CBN 黑料社 Channel鈥檚 first Asian Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum held at the Sofitel Manila.
Most of the crowd paid anywhere between P20,000 to P35,000 each to hear the flamboyant visionary, whose latest project involves making space travel affordable to all, share his thoughts on business and success.
But aware of the plan of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte to reintroduce capital punishment, Branson also spoke about the death penalty, saying it is not a deterrent to crime.
Even the United States, which has a 鈥渞elatively good judicial system,鈥� got it wrong years ago, when DNA-based evidence was not yet allowed, Branson said.
鈥淚n countries where you can鈥檛 100 percent trust 鈥� the courts, the last thing you should have is the death penalty, and it鈥檚 not a deterrent anyway,鈥� he said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think society can risk executing innocent people and I hope this new government will think twice about that,鈥� he added.
Instead of executing criminals, Branson said they should be locked up 鈥渇or life without any chance of coming out on the street again.鈥�
The topic on the death penalty came up during the business forum as Branson noted the global war on drugs has 鈥渂een a complete failure.鈥�
He said jurisdictions would have less of a chance resolving the drug problem if approached in a 鈥渞epressive鈥� way rather than an approach seeking to reform addicts.聽 Miguel R. Camus