Prison officials on executions: So what now?

Prison officials were at a loss yesterday if they should proceed with the other scheduled executions, saying neither President Arroyo’s order nor the recent ruling of the Supreme Court (SC) was clear on the issue.

New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) superintendent Venacio Tesoro said they are waiting for the President to clarify her order to execute convicted kidnappers and drug traffickers whose death sentences have been affirmed by the SC.

Last Jan. 28, the SC gave convicted kidnappers Roberto Lara and Roderick Licayan a 30-day reprieve while the court studies whether evidence presented by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) merits a retrial of the kidnap-for-ransom case against them. They were supposed to have been executed by lethal injection yesterday.

"In a report, (the President) implied that after the execution of Lara and Licayan, we would go back to the moratorium," Tesoro said. He told The STAR they are only basing their actions on published reports because Mrs. Arroyo has not given them any written order.

But with the temporary stay of Lara and Licayan’s execution, Tesoro said they are not certain if they will carry out the execution of convicts who are next in line.

"We are waiting for instructions," he said. "But for the meantime, we have to continue preparing."

Tesoro refused to confirm reports that the next executions are scheduled on Feb. 6, when two convicted kidnappers, one drug lord and one rapist were set to die by lethal injection by lower courts. The names of these convicts remain undisclosed.

He said they have yet to open the envelope containing the schedule of executions on the first day of next month.

"That’s the rule," Tesoro added.

He noted that if the SC denies a retrial for Lara and Licayan on Feb. 26 or earlier, the two convicts may be executed by Feb. 27.

"But we also have to clarify this because the order said 30 working days. And if this excludes Saturday and Sunday, then the execution will be moved to March 9," Tesoro explained.

Members of the Coalition Against Death Penalty and the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), who sponsored a thanksgiving Mass yesterday, said certain issues remained unclear in the SC decision.

FLAG member Cookie Diokno said it was not established when or who will set Lara and Licayan’s execution in case the high tribunal denies the motion to reopen the case filed by the PAO last Jan. 15.

"According to the rules, it is the lower court that sets the schedule of execution of affirmed death convicts," Diokno said. "But the SC said if the motion was denied, the two convicts will be immediately executed."

She said the high tribunal had already affirmed the decision of the lower court that imposed a death sentence on Lara and Licayan.

Diokno added that if the high tribunal affirms the PAO’s appeal, the case will be remanded to the lower court, specifically Marikina City regional trial court Branch 272.

"The fate of Lara and Licayan is really up to the SC," she said. "Unless the President orders a reprieve and resumes the moratorium."

Most FLAG members are lawyers who are lobbying for a measure calling for the abolition of the death penalty law. The measure has already reached the second reading in both chambers of Congress.

Official records show there are 1,005 inmates on death row here, many of them convicted of rape and kidnapping. Of the total, 165 cases have been affirmed by the SC and can only be stopped by a presidential stay.

The death penalty was abolished in 1987, but reinstated in 1994 for "heinous" crimes such as rape, kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking.

Opposition from human rights groups held up executions until 1999. Seven convicts were put to death by lethal injections, mostly for rape, in early 2000 until then President Joseph Estrada declared a moratorium on judicial executions amid pressure from the influential Catholic church and rights groups.

Mrs. Arroyo, a staunch Catholic, reversed the moratorium a month after the body of kidnapped Chinese-Filipino Coca-Cola executive Betti Chua Sy was found stuffed in a trash bag in November.

Independent statistics showed that Sy was the 156th kidnap victim last year, when abductions reached a 10-year high.