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[av_heading heading=’Resurrecting the death penalty’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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IS THE House of Representatives railroading the bill reimposing the death penalty? We hope not.
Last week, the House committee on justice’s subcommittee on judicial reforms approved a bill (it wants capital punished revived but only for heinous crimes). The House Speaker already assured President Duterte that the House will send the bill to the Senate before the Christmas break, so the subcommittee’s move raised eyebrows. The President earlier said he wanted to put to death at least 50 convicts every month.
A thorough deliberation of the bill must be in order. Trying to bulldoze its passage won’t enlighten the public about its pros and cons. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez himself authored the bill that seeks to mete out death sentences to offenders convicted of drug felonies, murder, rape, robbery, carjacking, kidnapping, bribery, plunder, parricide, infanticide, destructive arson, piracy, and treason.
Already, Siquijor’s Rep. Ramon Rocamora warned against the wrongful execution of innocent people. This is a legitimate concern. Is our criminal justice system capable of properly carrying out the death penalty? He claimed that 60 percent of all drug-related cases stem from fabricated testimony or evidence-planting. Indeed, it would be a travesty of justice to execute people based on trumped-up charges.
Other quarters likened the death penalty to a band-aid solution being applied to a gravely ill patient in the emergency room. Our criminal justice system is like a very sick patient that needs immediate surgical treatment. If we are to save the patient, we have to cut off the rampant tumor of corruption. Will a simple band-aid solution such as the death penalty work?
Both the Senate inquiry into extrajudicial killings and the House probe on the illegal drug trade in the New Bilibid Prisons have clearly demonstrated that the pillars of our criminal justice system – from law enforcement to corrections – have been overwhelmed by corruption. The problem is clearly not with the penalty, or the severity of the punishment for crime.
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