After lawmakers scrap death penalty: Cheers and jeers for repeal of law

The death throes of capital punishment in the country met contrasting reactions from proponents and opponents after the both houses of Congress voted to repeal it last Monday.

The Cebu Archdiocese has lauded the move to repeal the death penalty law 12 years after Congress reimposed it as the maximum punishment for heinous crimes.

Msgr. Achilles Dakay, spokesperson of the Cebu Archdiocese, said that the Church was convinced that the death penalty had not served its purpose since criminality and corruption were still rampant saying that criminality has not been deterred.

"We are so happy with the decision because it has been the stand of the church that death penalty is not a practical punishment, it is inhumane, it is not a deterrent and it is anti-poor," Dakay said in an interview.

Dakay said that instead, the government should improve its jail system rather than propose something that is against the teachings of the church.

On the other hand, leaders of crime volunteer groups in the country have condemned the abolition of the death penalty saying that it did not pass through public consultation. Two former legislators from Cebu, who were the prime authors of the law - former Senator Ernesto Herrera and former Cebu Governor and 3rd District Congressman Pablo Garcia, share the same view.

Herrera, one of the primary sponsors of the Death Penalty Law in the Senate, told radio station DYLA yesterday that when he sponsored the law it was aimed at the drug traffickers, but other heinous crimes were inserted during the deliberation.

Herrera said now that the law has been repealed, he is afraid that drug traffickers from other countries, which still have the death penalty, might transfer their operations to the Philippines. Herrera said that until now he believes that majority of the Filipinos are still for the imposition of the death penalty.

Herrera said when they passed the death penalty law 78 percent of the population, based on their survey, were for the imposition of death penalty. However, the two chambers of Congress approved last Tuesday two separate Bills scrapping the death penalty.

Herrera said that approval of the bills was done in haste and that there was no thorough study made to feel the sentiments of the people.

Garcia, on the other hand, who stood as the primary sponsor of the Death Penalty Law in the Lower House said that the reason why the law has not been very effective because of the refusal of the government to impose it.

Garcia is wary that the victims of heinous crime will take it upon themselves to seek justice by resorting to extra-judicial methods now that the death penalty has been abolished.

Dante Jimenez, founding chairman of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, tagged the Senators and Congressmen who voted for the scrapping of the death penalty as "recycled politicians."

He called on the public, especially those who are victims of heinous crimes, to go to the streets and show their indignation to the lawmakers.

Among the Cebuano lawmakers who voted for the abolition of death penalty were Rep. Eduardo Gullas, Simeon Kintanar, Antonio Yapha, Clavel Martinez, Ramon "Red" Durano VI and Nerissa Soon Ruiz.

Cebu City North District Rep. Raul del Mar was among the 119 Congressmen who voted in favor of the House Bill 4826 otherwise known as the Act prohibiting the imposition of death penalty in the Philippines last Tuesday night.

South district Rep. Antonio Cuenco was the only Cebuano Congressmen who stood firm that the death penalty should stay.

Jimenez lauded Cuenco for standing his ground even if it was against the stand of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who earlier certified the bills abolishing the death penalty as urgent.

Jimenez said he could not remember any incident wherein they were invited to a public hearing on the bills before they were approved.

According to Jimenez they are now studying the possibility of taking legal action. But, the immediate move of their group is to mobilize the people to hold protest actions against the abolition of the death penalty.

Jimenez believes that the bills were hastily passed by the two houses of Congress to ensure that the law is already approved when Arroyo visits Libya, Rome and Spain starting on June 23 to July 2. The president is expected to meet with Pope Benedict XVI.

Jimenez said, Arroyo obviously pressured the lawmakers into approving the Bills in exchange of a hefty share of the pork barrel. He added that Arroyo will surely brag to the Pontiff and to Spain that the Philippines has already scrapped death penalty.

The Catholic Church is strongly against the imposition of death penalty while the Spain also has personal interest for its abolition because of Francisco Juan 'Paco' Larrañaga, a Spanish citizen, who is one of the five convicted rapists of the Chiong sisters in 1997, is also facing death penalty.

Larrañaga's family has sought the help of the Spanish government on this matter.

According to Jimenez, there is no basis to claim that the death penalty should be abolished because it does not serve its purpose as a deterrent of heinous crimes. He said, the reason why death penalty was not proven effective because the government refused to implement it.

Since the Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law was re-imposed in 1993, Leo Echegaray, who was convicted for raping his stepdaughter and six others have been executed until President Joseph Estrada ordered a moratorium in 2000.

Thelma Chiong, national vice president of the Crusade Against Violence, whose daughters Mary Joy and Jacqueline have been victims of heinous crime in 1997, said that she was really saddened by the abolition of death penalty.

Chiong said the victims of heinous crimes did not ask for the imposition of death penalty because the government voluntarily gave it to them. She said they felt betrayed when the government itself took back what has already been given to them.

Chiong said the victims of heinous crimes will be left with no choice now that the death penalty will be abolished but to run to the vigilantes to get justice.

Integrated Bar of the Philippines Cebu City chapter president Alex Tolentino shared the opinion. He said there is no need to abolish the death penalty law, because after all it is still the president who has the final word whether or not to impose it or not.

Tolentino, like other people who for the imposition of the death penalty viewed the move to abolish it as politically motivated.

The death penalty was first abolished after the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986, but the 1987 Constitution gave Congress the option of restoring it.

Fueled by public uproar over a series of high-profile murder cases, the capital punishment was restored in 1994 for heinous crimes such as rape, kidnapping-for-ransom, murder, drug trafficking, treason, piracy, infanticide, parricide, arson, carjacking with murder and plunder, which Estrada and his son Senator Jinggoy are facing before the Sandiganbayan.

Executions were carried out by lethal injection, chosen as the most humane form of execution. Executions during the Marcos era were carried out by electric chair.

Only one execution was carried out by firing squad. Shortly after the declaration of Martial Law on September 1972, convicted drug lord Lim Seng was sentenced to death by a military tribunal. President Ferdinand Marcos ordered the execution shown on live television as part of his crackdown on crime.

Despite the separation of church and state, the Catholic Church wields strong influence in the predominantly Catholic country.

There are over 1,000 convicts on death row and over a dozen of them are women, according to government data. The Supreme Court has upheld at least 160 death sentences.

President Arroyo extended the moratorium imposed by her predecessor, but then lifted it in October 2001, saying the freeze had emboldened criminals, particularly kidnap-for-ransom gangs. No executions have occurred since the moratorium was lifted, however.

In September 2002, Arroyo indefinitely suspended executions while lawmakers began debates on whether or not to repeal the death penalty law.

Arroyo again lifted the moratorium a month after the body of a kidnapped Coca-Cola Finance Corp. executive Betti Chua Sy was found stuffed in a trash bag in November but reversed her position later. - with Flor Z.Perolina