Joker insists death penalty won’t deter heinous crimes

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Joker Arroyo, who championed the abolition of capital punishment in 2006, reiterated yesterday that the death penalty is not a deterrent to heinous crimes now apparently resurgent in the country.

When Congress repealed the death penalty, Arroyo said the country was hailed by people from all over the world including Europe where some regarded the Philippine move as a “reflection of its superior civilization.”

“In other words, you can carry on your criminal justice system without imposing death as a penalty. So what does it mean, if you have an advance civilization, you don’t need the death penalty,” said Arroyo, a human rights lawyer during the martial law years.

The senator maintained that the death penalty does not deter the commission of crimes since there was no significant reduction in crime statistics when capital punishment was in effect from 1995 to 2004.

“In other words, imposing the death penalty is not the solution to crimes,” he said, noting that even judges were hesitant to impose the death penalty at the time.

“The primary thing they should do is to arrest the criminal first. Not immediate punishment. Death penalty is meant only to scare. It will not deter criminality. So it has no effect,” he said.

In an interview with dzBB radio yesterday, Arroyo welcomed Malacañang’s statement, which indicated it is not in favor of re-imposing the capital punishment.

“We are proud to be the only country in Asia that does not implement death penalty. That is also consistent with being the only Christian country in the region (Asia),” Arroyo said. 

The senator’s stand was supported by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), who said yesterday that death penalty would not put an end to the heinous crimes happening in the country.

CBCP-National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace (Nassa) chairman Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo said “death penalty is not the solution. We all know that those who have been sentenced with death penalty are poor people.”

Instead of looking at death penalty as a solution to the crime problem, Bishop Pabillo believes it would be better if the judicial system works.   – With Evelyn Macairan