A Filipino archbishop has said he is willing to take the place of death row prisoners if the country brings back capital punishment. 

"Didn't Christ do that?" asked Archbishop Ramon Cabrera Arguelles of Lipa.

The Philippines' newly elected president Rodrigo Duterte has said he wants to reinstate capital punishment, which was abolished in 2006.

He hopes to apply it for offences including drug offences, rape, robbery, car theft and corruption.

If this does come to pass, Arguelles said he "will volunteer to be executed in the place of all those the government will hang".

Arguelles is not alone in challenging the new president and his proposed plans.

"We will certainly oppose his plan, especially the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines," said Archbishop Oscar Valero Cruz, now retired from the Archdiocese of Lingayen-Dagupan.

"The Church will not take it sitting down, but will stand against the death penalty."

Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga said Duterte would be playing God if he reintroduced it. "Only God has power over life. God gives life, and God takes life. No one should play God," he said.

"Life is sacred. Life is promoted, respected and protected. It is the prisons they have to reform and the justice system they have to review."

Speaking on May 15 in his first press conference since he won the election on May 9, Duterte told reporters that he will "urge congress to restore [the] death penalty by hanging".

Central to his election campaign was a pledge to end crime within three to six months of being elected.

He promised to kill tens of thousands of criminals and to give security forces "shoot-to-kill" orders.

"If you resist, show violent resistance, my order to police [will be] to shoot to kill. Shoot to kill for organised crime. You heard that? Shoot to kill for every organised crime," he said.

The current president of the national bishops conference, Archbishop Socrates Villegas of LIngayen-Dagupan, said he hopes to have a meeting with Duterte to persuade him to back down over capital punishment.

"As people of faith, we do not adhere to capital punishment because we do not have the right to judge who should live and who should die," said Father Lito Jopson, head of the bishops' communications office.

"It is not based on popularity...but rather on complete moral principles of the Catholic faith and faith demands we respect all persons' human dignity," Jopson said.