Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Wednesday said policemen who committed heinous crimes must be punished with the death penalty.

Año made the statement after a police officer shot a mother and her son in Paniqui, Tarlac last Sunday.

“If we only have death penalty, I want cops who violated the law they are implementing like committing heinous crimes should be punished by death penalty,” Año said in a radio interview.

Año said men in uniform who commit these crimes must be punished by death penalty just like drug lords and drug syndicates.

Police Senior Master Sergeant Jonel Nuezca was charged with two counts of murder after he shot a mother and her son following an inquest on Monday.

The National Police Commission (Napolcom) on Tuesday also demoted Nuezca to master sergeant over his 2014 extortion case.

While he condemned rogue cops, Año still appealed to the public that the action of Nuezca does not reflect the entire police organization.

He earlier said that the incident was ''an isolated case''.

“Why did we say it is an isolated case? Because what is happening now is our cops are being generalized. How about the good cops? They are now 99 percent good,” Año said.

“They did a lot of good deeds even outside their official duty so it’s not fair to judge all police… He is only one, and he is not in jail,” he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte last Monday also said the case was an isolated one and told the Philippine National Police (PNP) that Nuezca must rot in jail. Ella Dionisio/DMS