The problem with death penalty

It is always a staggering thought, that of many lives lost in a country that has seen its share of violence amid surging criminality. But are the reimposition of the death penalty, a curfew for minors and a liquor ban the ultimate cure for crime and disorder?

Not quite, said Cebu Governor Hilario “Junjun” Davide and three other prominent Cebuanos polled by Cebu Daily News.

Davide, in an interview with reporters yesterday, said that while he will support Rodrigo Duterte once the latter assumes office on June 30, the presumptive President’s planned anti-crime measures should be further studied.

On Sunday, May 15, Duterte announced that he would implement a 10 p.m. curfew for unescorted minors across the country in order to “protect the children” and would strictly implement a liquor ban from 1 to 6 a.m. nationwide.

“There is wisdom in that. I cannot say I will support it then and there. Everything needs to be studied,” said Davide.

But in as far as the planned reinstatement of the death penalty was concerned, Davide added, “I have never been for death penalty. I don’t think it is a deterrent to crime. There are some other ways to deter crime, definitely not death penalty.”

Davide also believed that Duterte’s plan to arm people in the barangays to help local officials crack down on illegal drugs needs careful study as this can be subject to abuse.

The governor said stricter regulations on the issuance of permits to carry guns and the sale of firearms should be crafted first.

“We should be careful. We need strict regulations on the issuance of licenses to carry and to own (firearms). We don’t want a society where everybody is armed. It would be scary if we go into war,” he said.

DEATH PENALTY

Meanwhile, pro-life advocates in Cebu opposed presumptive President Duterte’s plan to revive the death penalty for heinous crimes by public hanging.

“Death penalty, whether through public hanging or lethal injection, is never a solution to crime. It is not a deterrent to crime. We must fight crime through the Constitution and Christian means,” said human rights lawyer Democrito Barcenas in a text message to CDN.

Barcenas and Human Life International country director Dr. Rene Josef Bullecer both believed that the death penalty victimizes poor people but never the rich who can afford to hire the best lawyers and even bribe witnesses.

In European countries, Barcenas said, capital punishment was abolished because it is deemed “barbaric.”

For his part, Bullecer appealed to Duterte to fully implement laws and focus on alleviating poverty instead of choosing to reinstate the death penalty.

“Let us avoid the ‘short cut way’ of deterring the problem,” Bullecer told CDN over the phone.

Instead of bringing back the death penalty, he said it would be better for the government to strengthen existing laws.

Before death penalty was abolished in 2006, Bullecer said it was not proven that it was an effective way to prevent criminality in the country.

Death penalty, Bullecer said, is directed to the poor and “punishes the poor.”

“We would still recognize that even guilty people or accused criminals have the potential to change,” he said.

Msgr. Joseph Tan, media liaison officer of the Archdiocese of Cebu, said the Catholic Church understands the need to restore peace and order but it should be done in the right way.

He said they would await the formal announcement of Duterte’s plan to bring back the death penalty in the country before issuing a formal statement on the matter.

“Of course, the Church opposes death penalty. In fact in Rome, the lights at the Coliseum are turned on for a night when there are countries that repeal the death penalty,” Tan said.

Tan said that the Church hopes that the country’s leaders will be guided by the rule of law before implementing any policy or procedure.

“We are not under anarchy. We still have the force of law. And so let us observe the right procedures,” he said.

A research conducted by the Philippine Daily Inquirer noted that the Philippines has had a history of invoking and scrapping capital punishment since the end of World War II.

Between 1946 and 1965, when Ferdinand Marcos was the president, 35 people convicted of savage crimes were executed.

But after the EDSA People Power Revolution that toppled Marcos from power, then-president Corazon Aquino promulgated the 1987 Constitution and abolished the death penalty “unless for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, Congress hereafter provides for it.”

In 1993, Congress passed Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law, which reimposed capital punishment.

Under this law, crimes punishable by death included murder, rape, big-time drug trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, treason, piracy, qualified bribery, parricide, infanticide, plunder, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, robbery with violence or intimidation, qualified vehicle theft and arson.

In March 1996, the law, through RA 8177, was amended prescribing death by lethal injection for offenders convicted of heinous crimes.

Between 1999 and 2000, during the term of president Joseph Estrada, seven inmates were put to death.

The first person to be executed was Leo Echegaray, on Feb. 9, 1999, and the last was Alex Bartolome, on Jan. 4, 2000.

Echegaray was convicted by the court of raping his stepdaughter while Bartolome was found guilty of raping his daughter more than 100 times over two years, starting when she was 16.

In June 2006, president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo abolished capital punishment when she signed Republic Act No. 9346, also known as An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of the Death Penalty in the Philippines.

Arroyo explained that death penalty had not proven to be a deterrent to crime and had to be abolished.

RA 9346 downgraded the death penalty to life imprisonment.