Pimentel pushes for death penalty abolition

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. pushed yesterday for a repeal of the death penalty law.

"I would like to renew my call to Congress for the abolition of the death penalty," he said. "I believe that there is no place for capital punishment in a society that is truly civilized. Death is final and gives the convict no chance to reform or correct himself."

Pimentel, the lone senator from Cagayan de Oro City, asked President Arroyo to grant executive clemency to about 6,000 prisoners who have served the minimum periods of their sentences.

Issuing the statement after the aborted breakout from the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City last Saturday, Pimentel made the call in observance of Prison Awareness Week and the 100th anniversary of the Bureau of Corrections. In a privilege speech, Pimentel also lamented the sad state of 30,000 prisoners nationwide.

In pushing for the death penalty law’s repeal, Pimentel said the aim of imprisonment is rehabilitation, which is why the agency is called the Bureau of Corrections.

"Again, I urge the President to consider commuting the sentences of prisoners recommended by the Board of Pardons and Parole," he said.

Pimentel, a political detainee during martial law, said there are 40 sickly and old prisoners in the maximum security cell of the National Penitentiary, and 20 elderly inmates at the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City who have been recommended for executive clemency.

The ages of the female inmates range from 76 to 85 years old, he added.

Pimentel said the power to grant commutations must be given to government officials like the secretary of justice once the Constitution is amended.

The problems in the country’s penal system can be traced to lack of budget from the government, he added.

Pimentel said there are 660 patients in the hospital inside the maximum security zone of the National Penitentiary.

"There is only one blood pressure apparatus for all 660 patients," he said. "The one-peso-a-day medical budget per prisoner naturally terribly impacts on the state of health of the inmates."

There are no ultrasound machines, no electro-cardiograph equipment, no cardiac monitors or even a blood bank refrigerator at the hospital, Dr. Ernesto Tamayo, National Penitentiary chief of clinics, told Pimentel. The x-ray machine is very old, while the operating room is a throwback to the early 1900s, he added.

Pimentel cited the case of Rodolfo Monteclaro, a 60-year-old convict who has been in prison for the last 10 years for rape.

"Terminally ill patients like the TB-stricken Rodolfo Monteclaro who served prison time and pose no threat to society should be considered (for) pardon," he said.