MANILA, Philippines – The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) rejected yesterday the re-imposition of the death penalty.
CHR chairwoman Leila de Lima said Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law has not deterred the commission of crimes.
“(RA 7659) is a breach of international obligations by virtue of our commitments with international human rights treaties and our adherence to the principle of pacta sunt servanda under international law,” she said.
“(But since) the enactment of the Death Penalty Law, there has been no sufficient proof to show that the penalty of death has the effect of deterring crimes in the country.
“What has proven to be a deterrent is certainty and not severity of punishment to which the death penalty carries no room for human error, no room for restoration. The effect of death penalty is irreversible.”
De Lima said the Universal Declaration on Human Rights stipulates the right to life, liberty, and security of every person.
“The CHR has consistently been unwavering in the affirmation of the right to life,” she said.
“In our advocacy against the death penalty law, the Commission is not against serving justice to the victim. The Commission is in agreement that perpetrators must be punished.”
De Lima said criminals should not be punished on the grounds of taking away their lives as death penalty excludes chances of renewal.
“Every human being has the inherent right to life… No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life,” she quoted the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right.
De Lima said that the Philippines, through the Second Optional Protocol to the ACCPR, has committed to abolish the death penalty and uphold the right of life.
“The enactment of the Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines (RA 9346) showed our progressive compliance with our international obligations on human rights,” she said.
De Lima replaced Purificacion Quisumbing as CHR chairwoman last May 19.
Quisumbing has been elected to the Advisory Committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Quisumbing’s daughter, Cecilia Rachel, was appointed as a commissioner of the human rights body.
Three more commissioners are to be appointed by President Arroyo to complete the CHR.
Renewed calls to reimpose the death penalty came following the brutal slaying of bank employees, a security guard, and a client during a robbery at the RCBC bank branch in Cabuyao, Laguna; and the shooting spree at Calamba, also in Laguna, where eight people, among them five children, were killed. – With JC Cordon