[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’EDITORIAL | Long shot’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
BRINGING back capital punishment appears to have become a long shot in Congress due to lack of time. The bill reviving the death sentence was passed by the House in March. But if Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon were to be believed, the measure is already “dead” in the Senate where at least 13 members are committed to vote against it.
The Senate may not pass the bill before the end of the first regular session of the 17th Congress on June 2. And in the second regular session of the 17th Congress, both the House and the Senate would be preoccupied with the proposed General Appropriations Act for 2018 from August to December. The Senate in particular will also be busy deliberating on the proposed Comprehensive Tax Reform Package, assuming the bill gets through the House before June 2.
President Duterte has publicly said he intends to send hundreds of convicts to the gallows once Congress reintroduces the death penalty that was abolished in 2006. “Restore it and I will execute criminals every day – five or six. That’s for real,” Duterte said in General Santos City in December.
But time may not be on the President’s side. It appears impossible for anybody to be executed via a court order throughout President Duterte’s tenure simply because at best it takes around five years for any potential death penalty) case to go through due process of law, and his term also ends in five years. Thus the President may not get to have his show after all.
But the truth is the certainty of capture and punishment – not death penalty – is the best deterrence to would-be criminal offenders. Only a highly effective criminal justice system – one that is free from corruption and incompetence – can guarantee apprehension and sentencing.
The restoration of the death penalty would only beget a culture of killings that would in turn further brutalize the nation and engender even more violence and bloodshed. Death penalty is anti-poor; only underprivileged citizens inadequately represented at trial would receive it, while moneyed people with topnotch lawyers would always escape conviction, or get the lesser punishment.
Bold reforms in law enforcement, the prosecution service, the courts and in prisons can do more to deter criminals.
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
