|
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Rise of illegal executions seen
As Congress moved closer to abolishing the Death Penalty Law, a church official in Cebu and one of the authors of the law warned that its removal could encourage vigilante attacks and other crimes.
The bicameral conference committee approved yesterday the urgent bill that seeks to end capital punishment in the Philippines.
“Both sides finalized the measure. There was little argument. We were all willing to give and take,” said Sen. Joker Arroyo, chairman of the Senate committee on justice.
Once the final bill is signed into law, the penalty of life imprisonment without parole, in lieu of death by lethal injection, will be imposed on those convicted of heinous crimes.
Presidential Adviser Gabriel Claudio conveyed Malacañang’s congratulations to Congress for “this historic act of statesmanship and humanity.”
But in Cebu, Msgr. Achilles Dakay said that while the Catholic Church welcomes the development, there’s also the fear that summary executions here would worsen. At least 163 persons, many of them suspected or convicted criminals, have been gunned down in Cebu City since late December 2004.
“Kuyaw lang og musiaw nuon ang vigilantes (Our fear is that the vigilantes might be encouraged by this),” Msgr. Dakay, the archdiocese’s media liaison officer, told Sun.Star Cebu.
Dakay also said that the government should not stop with the abolition of death penalty, but should now focus on the improvement of jail facilities.
He noted that the law never deterred crimes anyway.
Deterrence
Former Cebu governor Pablo Garcia, one of the authors of the Death Penalty Law, also worries that with its abolition, vigilante killings and other forms of crime will increase.
While he submits to the judgment of the present Congress, Garcia said there are crimes that deserve nothing less than the death penalty.
He also said the law has not stopped criminality because it was not properly implemented.
Deterrence, however, is only one of the functions of the law, but the bigger reason for it is “retributive justice, which is the principal function of punishment.”
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Olegario Sarmiento of Branch 24 also appreciated the recent development, adding that sending a criminal to death row has been the hardest part of his job.
Last Monday, he sentenced a father to death by lethal injection after finding him guilty of raping his then 15-year-old daughter in 2002.
It was only Judge Sarmiento’s fourth time to impose the maximum sentence and he is glad that he may no longer have to do it again.
“My moral conviction makes it really hard to impose the death penalty, had it not been for the fact that we must impose the law,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
But Branch 15 Judge Fortunato de Gracia has a different point of view.
“Heinous crimes will multiply because the deterrent is not there anymore,” he said in an ABS-CBN interview.
In 2004, Judge de Gracia ordered 26 death sentences on a seaman convicted of raping his teenage twin daughters, at least 31 times, in 1998.
A former supporter of the death penalty law disagrees with de Gracia.
Integrated Bar of the Philippines Eastern Visayas Gov. Manuel Legaspi cited surveys that show crimes increased even with the imposition of the death penalty.
“Statistics show that heinous crimes did not decrease. In fact, it even increased, which means that death penalty is not a deterrent to crime,” said Legaspi, a former member of the Cebu City Council.
This is the same reason the Senate used in voting to abolish the death penalty.
Approval
The contingents from the House of Representatives and the Senate approved the measure in a teleconference yesterday.
Senators Arroyo, Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Francis Pangilinan representing the Upper Chamber. The House of Representatives was represented by Reps. Edcel Lagman, Salacnib Baterina, Luis Villafuerte, Jose Carlos Lacson, Simeon Kintanar and Abraham Mitra.
“No president has ever carried this (the death penalty) out. What is the point if there is no one carrying that out?” Senator Arroyo asked.
Still, a religious council would rather have capital punishment retained for certain cases.
The Philippine Council for Evangelical Churches (PCEC) said that while they welcome the President’s decision to commute the death terms on more than 1,000 convicts, there should be exceptions.
Unlike petty crimes such as theft or armed robbery, which can be meted life imprisonment or a lower punishment, perpetrators of a massacre of civilians should be meted death, said the PCEC.
“We uphold the principle of life for life. The punishment must fit the crime. The penalty must be commensurate to the gravity of the offense,” the PCEC said.
“Justice must be served, especially if the case involves taking away someone else’s life. A man who takes the life of another forfeits his own life.” (JGA/With MBG, Sunnex & PNA)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 8, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
