Execution of child rapist set on Sept. 3

A convicted rapist is set to die by lethal injection on Sept. 3.

Eddie Semadilla, 25, was sentenced to death in February 1999 by Judge Bienvenido Estrada of the Regional Trial Court of Pangasinan after he was found guilty of raping a six-year-old girl.

The Supreme Court affirmed the death sentence of Semadilla in January 2001.

Under the law, the court of origin could set the date of execution within 12 to 18 months after the high court had upheld its decision.

Semadilla, who according to court records raped the victim in November 1997, said he has already accepted his fate.

However, he is worried about how his mother, a newspaper vendor in Pangasinan, would take the news of his impending death.

Semadilla would have been executed after Rolando Pagdayawon, another convicted rapist, who was scheduled to be put to death on Friday.

But President Arroyo postponed the execution of Pagdayawon, a former Davao policeman, in deference to the birthday on Saturday of Archbishop of Manila Jaime Cardinal Sin.

After Semadilla, three other convicted rapists are also set to die: Filomeno Serrano on Sept. 20, Alfredo Nardo on Oct. 18, and Jimmy Jacob on Oct. 31.

A source said the daughters of Serrano and Nardo, whom they were convicted of raping, do not want them to be put to death.

Serrano and his daughter reportedly had a tearful meeting last Wednesday, while Nardo was visited by his wife and daughter.

Serrano, a former taxi driver, was said to have pleaded with his daughter, now in her late teens, to "help him live."

On the other hand, Nardo’s family does not want him executed "Ayaw nilang mabitay siya," the sources said.

Jacob, who is from Daraga City in Albay, said he has accepted "whatever punishment" would be meted out to him.

Jacob has admitted raping his daughter.

The Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), an anti-death penalty lobby group, is set to ask the Supreme Court today for a temporary restraining order to stop the executions.

At least 22 death convicts are scheduled to be executed by January next year, according to party-list Rep. Loreta Ann Rosales (Akbayan), who chairs the House committee on civil, political and human rights.

In a letter to Mrs. Arroyo on Aug. 14, Rosales said there was a "growing chance" that Congress would repeal the death penalty law.

"(Proceeding with the executions) is like taking the life of a man a law is about to spare," read part of the letter.

Rosales said executing convicts shuts all chances to reform lawbreakers and there is always the possibility of an innocent man being put to death.

Earlier, the Bureau of Corrections said 18 people are scheduled to be put to death this year.

Filipinos are divided on the death penalty issue, with supporters saying it has become necessary amid rising criminality.

Opponents, including leaders of the Catholic Church, argue that the death penalty has not curbed crime, and that more efficient law enforcement is the solution.