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Monday, April 17, 2006
Reprieve for death convicts not final: Arroyo aide
MANILA -- Crime victims were shocked while death row inmates rejoiced Sunday after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said she would commute death sentences to life imprisonment -- a move that could save about 1,200 convicts, including al Qaida-linked militants.
Arroyo chief of staff Michael Defensor said on Sunday, however, that the commutation of the death sentences is not yet final and has still to be reviewed by the justice department.
In an Easter announcement apparently intended to mollify critical Roman Catholic Church leaders, Arroyo said the death sentence would be commuted to life in prison, but did not say whether she would move to legally abolish the death penalty, which has not been carried out in the Philippines since 2000.
Teresita Ang-See, a leader of the anti-crime Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order, said kidnap victim in the group were shocked, especially as there had been a resurgence of kidnappings lately.
"It's a bad news to be awakened to," she told ABS-CBN television on Sunday.
"They're not only dismayed, they're also shocked by that announcement. It's the height of insensitivity and callousness," she said.
Defensor said the commutation, given the nature of the crimes committed by some death convicts, would still have to be qualified.
He said the opinion or action of Congress on the commutation was also important because it enacted the law that imposed anew the capital punishment.
Ang-See said Arroyo's decision is likely also to unnerve Chinese Filipino businessmen who have been the prime target of kidnappers in past years. A group of Chinese traders, worried by new kidnappings, recently appealed to Arroyo to set an example by executing convicted kidnappers, she added.
Ang-See said the bounty on coup plotters should be used instead as reward for those who could provide information that would lead to the arrest of kidnappers.
Also on death row are some 11 Islamic militants belonging to the Abu Sayyaf, a small al Qaida-linked group blamed for deadly bombings and kidnappings.
Maria Socorro Diokno, secretary general of the Free Legal Assistance Group, which provides legal counsel to poor inmates said those on death row were delighted by the news.
"They're really very, very happy. They're ecstatic," Diokno said.
Diokno, however, said Arroyo should clarify whether all 1,237 death row inmates would have their sentence commuted, and she called again for Arroyo to urgently certify a congressional bill seeking the abolition of the death penalty.
Under the Constitution, the President can only commute death sentences that have been upheld by the Supreme Court. The court has only upheld about 100 death sentences while the rest are under review, she said.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales said the new policy covers those already convicted and those that would be sentenced to death in the future.
However, it does not abolish the death penalty, which would require approval by Congress.
No execution has taken place since 2000 in the Philippines, where capital punishment has been opposed by the conservative church but advocated by victims of heinous crimes and terrorist attacks.
Arroyo, who has been grappling for months with vote-rigging and corruption allegations, has tried to woo influential Catholic bishops, who have lamented the crisis under her rule, condemned her policy of liberalizing the mining industry and criticized a plan by her supporters to change the Constitution.
Arroyo has once said that languishing amid the appalling conditions in jails was worse than death itself. (AP/With Sunnex)
(April 17, 2006 issue)
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