Vigilantes more effective than death penalty – Tom

Some senators have called for the reinstatement of the death penalty but Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday said the law has not been proven to be a deterrent to crime.

Osmeña, who earlier admitted to have inspired vigilante-style killings in the city, instead said the presence of vigilantes seems to have scared criminals more than the death penalty.

“Mas effective pa ang mga vigilante diba? I’m not saying that I’m pro-vigilantes but that’s the benefit,” Osmeña said.

The mayor said it is difficult to implement the law in the Philippines because of the country’s slow justice system. He said a jailed suspect may even die first due to sickness and old age before the court could render its ruling.

At least 200 former convicts and inmates, and those with pending criminal cases, were shot dead from 2004 to 2008. Most of those killed were either suspected and convicted robbers, thieves and drug pushers.

The latest casualties were a suspected robber, Ricolly Igoy, who was ambushed in Minglanilla after posting bail, and suspected swindlers Jose Magno and his wife Evelyn, and Medase Castro.

The vigilante-style killings even gained support from the Crusade Against Violence, an organization helping victims of senseless killings and other heinous crimes.

Thelma Chiong, CAV national vice president, said the organization supports the killings if only to make Cebu City safer. Chiong, however, urged those behind the vigilante-style killings to ensure that no innocent people are killed.

She explained that the CAV stand on vigilantism maybe contrary to their advocacy, but it is not also totally against it.

Chiong said that the reality is that it is very difficult to arrest a criminal, a sentiment that Osmeña agrees to.

Senators Juan Miguel Zubiri, Loren Legarda, Panfilo Lacson and Ramon Revilla Jr. called for the revival of the capital punishment for certain heinous crimes, including terror acts, as a means to promote peace and order in the country.

The senators made the call following the massacre of 10 people during a bank robbery in Cabuyao, Laguna last week.

Congress overwhelmingly voted to abolish the death penalty in 2006 with prodding from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.

Zubiri said he would like criminals convicted of crimes related to drug trafficking and multiple homicide punished with death. – Joeberth M. Ocao/LPM