CBCP: Abolish death penalty now

Philippine Catholic bishops called again over the weekend for the formal abolition of the death penalty even as Malacañang had announced that it was not disposed to carrying out capital punishment.

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Archbishop Orlando Quevedo of Cotabato told reporters it is about time Congress reviewed the death penalty law and eventually repealed it.

"We all know that even with the death penalty, the crimes which were supposed to be deterred... continued," Quevedo said. "So it has not proven to be a deterrent to heinous crimes."

Quevedo said that he and all the bishops were happy when President Arroyo commuted to life imprisonment the sentences of death convicts.

But he said the CBCP still calls for a review of the death penalty law leading to its abolition.

The archbishop said the review must be done in view of the current retributive and restorative justice systems in other countries.

He said that the Catholic church has always been advocating the abolition of the death penalty.

In commending the President’s move to spare death convicts from lethal injection, Quevedo described it as a step toward the culture of life.

However, he said criminals should not be allowed to go scot-free.

To protect life, he said criminals should be punished but in a humane, responsible way that would, at the same time, deter crime.

Presidential chief of staff Renato Corona earlier said the President would consult the Catholic Church and pro-life and anti-crime groups on the issue of the death penalty.

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel Jr. pressed Mrs. Arroyo to formalize her implied policy against executions and call on Congress to repeal the law on capital punishment.

There are more than 1,700 convicts on death row at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.