Dante Jimenez, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) founding chairman, said Indonesian Abdurrohim, and Filipinos Trinidad and Baharan deserve the death sentence meted out by Judge Marissa Guillen of the Makati Regional Trial Court, branch 60. "(It is) justice for (their) victims," he said.
Jimenez said he is sure that the death sentence against the three convicted terrorists will not be implemented as the Arroyo administration has not executed any death convicts.
"This explains why heinous crimes are being committed," he said. "This is the regretful thing about the death penalty. People are not afraid."
Jimenez called on President Arroyo to wake up to the reality that perpetrators of heinous crimes must be meted the capital punishment as required by law. "I hope the President will realize this before it’s too late," he said.
Abdurrohim is the first Jemaah Islamiyah member to be convicted of a crime considered to be of terrorist proportions in the Philippines, he added.
Jimenez said the administration claims it is taking the war against terrorism seriously that it wants an anti-terrorism law passed by Congress.
In fact, the government can’t implement an already existing law which also declares death for terrorists, he added.
Jimenez said a law which is not being implemented is no more than a "piece of paper for decoration" that is of no use at all.
Abdurrohim, and Trinidad and Baharan, who belong to the Abu Sayyaf, were found guilty of bombing a passenger bus in Makati on Valentine’s Day last year, he added.
Jimenez said the three should have been immediately executed by lethal injection after the Supreme Court had affirmed the lower court’s decision.
The VACC had long been calling on the Arroyo administration to implement the Death Penalty Law to make it an effective deterrent against crime, he added.
Jimenez said the VACC fears that a vigilante group calling itself "Angels" would offer free "services" for people in search of "justice." The Angels will kill for free, believing that they are agents of justice who bring death to those who deserve death, he added.
Unless the government shows the political will to implement the Death Penalty Law, vigilante groups will continue to take the law into their own hands, Jimenez said. — Michael Punongbayan