The death penalty did not stop heinous crimes!

We have known for many years that "money is the root of all evil"… or should I say, the love of money, but because Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña upped the reward from P200,000 to P1 million to find the killer of our dear friend, Elpidio "Jojo" de la Victoria, a suspect suddenly surfaced in the person of SPO1 Marcial Ocampo, a policeman assigned to Minglanilla, the town next to Talisay City. Sounds unbelievable, but yes even our policemen now act as hit men of criminal elements!

Last Monday evening, I went to the vigil for Jojo in Cosmo, Nivel and I talked to one of the witnesses (I’m not printing his name for his own security) and he told me in no uncertain terms that he’s one hundred and one percent positive that it is the man. In fact, the suspect wore the exact same clothes he wore last Wednesday when he shot Jojo in the back! Another friend who also works with Jojo knows this policeman to be a character and a drug addict. Hence, it is possible that he did the job to pay for his addiction.

Certainly, this cop was no professional hit man… after shooting Jojo, he took a tricycle and was chased by residents, but he brandished his weapon and his badge to ward them off! This led to speculations that the gunman posed as a policeman, as he also had handcuffs with him. But now it can be told, the killer, after all, was a cop! At this point, the investigators now focus on who ordered this cop to kill Jojo de la Victoria!

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Call it a "damned if you do, damned if you don’t" decision but I am four-square behind the dramatic decision of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) to spare all death row inmates and commute their death sentences to reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment. Perhaps she timed this move to coincide with Easter Sunday… so the death row inmates now have a second chance in life. Sure, it may still be a life in prison, but at least… if they behave well, they might die in prison of old age.

I submit that I, too, am a convert… because 10 years ago, I was a staunch believer of the death penalty despite my being a Catholic, where I even questioned why the Catholic Church so stubbornly insisted that nations should not execute criminals who violated their laws. But after reading the book written by the Great Pope John Paul II entitled "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," I learned something about the Catholic Church… that we should not only believe in the teachings of the Church, but at the same time we are the Church! I also learned through the years that, "In matters of faith… obedience is fundamental… not the intellect!"

But even without taking the Catholic Church into account, back then, I strongly believed that the imposition of the death penalty was a deterrent to crime. But through the years, we have learned the bitter truth (this is something that we may debate all day) that in the end, the reality today can be read in our newspapers and watched on our satellite TV that the criminality continues, the killings never stopped, the robberies go on, rapes are committed so often despite the knowledge by our people that these are capital offenses which could get them the death penalty. Today, criminals kill you for the minutest reasons… like a cellphone or even a medical book!

Mind you, I’m writing this piece not to elicit a debate. For those who still believe in our having a death penalty… I respect your views. But what broke the proverbial camel’s back for me was a conversation with a priest friend of mine who admired my belief in saving the unborn. But he was dismayed to learn that I believed in the death penalty… and told me that I was not considered a "pro-lifer." He told me bluntly that there was no in-betweens, you were either pro-life or anti-life! What a puzzlement!

One day, my group called the Sons of David sponsored a Holy Mass at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) in Lahug, Cebu City and I was appalled at the conditions that the prisoners had to endure… living in a prison built for 400 inmates, but crammed with more than 2,000. After the Mass, the common observation of our friends was death was actually an easy way out for criminal offenders.

As expected, anti-crime advocates continue to believe that stopping the death penalty would lead to more crimes being committed. One such comment came from Teresita Ang See who heads the Anti-Crime Movement for Restoration of Peace and Order. She was shocked that President Arroyo has commuted those death sentences, expressing her concern about a recent resurgence of kidnappings in Metro Manila. Gauging from Ms. Ang’s own statement, that there has been a resurgence of kidnappings is clear proof that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime.

Let me point out that we completely understand why the victims of heinous crimes are not happy with what the President has done. These people obviously go by the old dictum, "God forgives, I don’t!" I think this was even the title of an old Clint Eastwood western movie. But then, as Christians, we are taught to even love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. Well, all I can say is, being a Catholic isn’t easy!

But if there’s something terribly wrong with our world today, it is also because Christians do not live their lives as true Christians. I remember reading a book about Mahatma Gandhi who once quipped, "I like the teachings of Christianity… it is the Christians that I dislike!" Indeed, we have Catholics and Protestants fighting in Ireland… they obviously do not know what Jesus taught us about forgiveness. This is just one among the many examples… you want to talk about the Spanish Civil War… the war between Catholics? There’s more, but we don’t have the space to write all these down.

What is important for many of us, including the Vatican, the human rights people and yes, many western countries, it’s about time we put a stop to this Culture of Death that seems to have permeated Philippine society. Once upon a time, the people living in this diverse archipelago were a peace-loving people. Today, life is so cheap, you can get shot like a dog in exchange for your cellphone or a medical book.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) pushed the envelope further on this issue, demanding the abolition of the death penalty. We hope and pray that Congress would respond promptly so finally, the killings would stop!

Finally, let me say it here that just because the Philippines will no longer execute death row inmates, it doesn’t mean that there would be an upsurge in criminality. If we really want criminality to go down, let us have more beat patrol policemen on every street corner… then the incidence of crime will surely drop.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.