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Thursday, April 20, 2006
Ariola: A masterful stroke
By Jose Paolo Ariola
I Still Walk the Line
BARELY had we gotten over our combined Holy Weekend hangover, our country has once again been polarized with the presidential commutation of about 1,200 or so death sentences. I am no big fan of GMA but I must give it her. With one deft move, she has relegated the hackneyed debates on charter change into the background and brought to the fore once again a sure fire issue that has driven wedge into the collective consciousness of our country. By so doing, she has apparently gained over a formidable erstwhile adversary back to her side - the Catholic Church. A sleight of hand? No. I call it a masterful stroke by a consummate politician. I am afraid that after all the incessant political bashing she's been subjected to in practically all fronts by her enemies and former friends, she's become a hardnosed politician herself able not only to take potshots but also to fire her own salvo. So you see, because of too muck politicking PGMA has become so calloused herself that she's become a political mutant just like her foes in the political battlefield. Perhaps even more. But please don't get me wrong. I am still foursquare for the death penalty. The familiar refrain of pro-life activists is that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime. But what is? They keep on shouting this familiar refrain to high heavens but until now they haven't come up with a better alternative. Until then I'll bet my bottom peso with the death penalty. Compassion is not in the dictionary of hardcore criminals. Theirs is the language of violence and brutality. It's the only lingo they understand. So why should we treat them with compassion when they did not even know the meaning of the word when they were perpetrating their dastardly deeds against their hapless victims. Pity was not in their minds when their victims were begging on bended knees for their lives. Put yourselves, pray tell, into the shoes of those ill-fated souls at the precise moment their lives were about to be precipitously snuffed out by those heartless scums. Imagine yourselves to be the Vizconde's raped, brutalized, and murdered. Or perhaps those innocent victims of the LRT Rizal Day bombing some of whom were blown to smithereens beyond recognition while some became maimed and disabled permanently for the rest of their lives. Don't they deserve compassion too? They deserve not only compassion but justice, pure and unsullied. Dura lex sed lex - the law may be harsh but that is the law. How often has this Latin maxim been invoked by countless law students and practitioners? This aphorism is the "amen" of adherents to the rule of law. For every felony committed, the felon not only commits a crime against his victim but also against society as well. That's why criminal cases are always entitled "People of the Philippines versus Juan de la Cruz." For having violated the social order, society has got the right to punish offenders as a form of self-preservation. That's what I've been taught in law school. And after having been with the judiciary for more than 16 years and having dealt with all kinds of criminals in that same period, I still remain steadfast in that conviction. |
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