EDITORIAL — Celebrating life

After refusing to implement the death penalty law, President Arroyo finally abolished capital punishment the other day, giving her some good news to report during her visit to the Vatican. Anti-crime groups and other proponents of capital punishment, the President said, should "celebrate life" together with those who wanted the death penalty abolished.

Celebrating life will require more than abolishing a law that was implemented only once. It means putting an end to extrajudicial killings by catching and punishing the perpetrators. These include the brains and triggermen behind the murders of militant activists, journalists and all others where the principal suspects are on the government’s payroll. If the abolition of capital punishment will herald a rise in purported encounters between law enforcers and suspected criminals, with the suspects always ending up dead, that can hardly be called a celebration of life.

Celebrating life also means making life better than death for those spared from the lethal injection chamber. Before capital punishment was abolished, death row convicts could be eligible for pardon. The law abolishing the death penalty requires them to stay in prison for 40 years without eligibility for pardon or parole, regardless of their age.

Taxpayers will be footing the bill for the lifetime prison upkeep of terrorists, kidnappers, carjackers, murderers, rapists and plunderers. If the heart of this administration truly bleeds for these lawbreakers, it should see to it that they do not end up being condemned to a fate worse than death.

Those lawmakers who were falling all over themselves to be included in the picture at the signing of the law abolishing capital punishment should provide the necessary funds to accommodate an exploding prison population. Death row is overcrowded, like the rest of the facilities in all national prisons and local jails. The country has woefully inadequate facilities for juvenile detention and has no special facilities for those convicted of white-collar crimes.

Humane treatment of prisoners does not come cheap. Apart from clean detention cells with enough breathing room, inmates need decent food, health care, spiritual and psychological counseling, continuing education and skills training, and yes, even occasional entertainment. Rehabilitation of prisoners, which is the primary goal of modern penal systems, costs money. Celebrating life makes for a good sound bite, but it has a price tag that this administration may be unwilling or unable to pay.