EDITORIAL - Why capital punishment fails

Thelma Chiong, the vice president of Crusade against Violence, is pushing for the reinstatement of capital punishment in the wake of skyrocketing cases of heinous crimes in the country.

She said her office receives a minimum of five cases a month for murder, rape and homicide. "Karon maghilak ang adlaw kon walay mamatay," she said, describing the country's justice system as slowly dying.

It is understandable for Chiong to bat for the reimposition of death penalty. Her two daughters — Jacqueline and Marijoy — were abducted, raped and killed more than 10 years ago. Marijoy's body was later found off a cliff in Carcar City. But until now, Jacqueline's body has yet to be recovered.

On February 3, 2004, all seven suspects, who were scions of influential families in Cebu, were convicted and sentenced by the Supreme Court to death by lethal injections. But on June 24, 2006, Congress decided to abolish capital punishment in the country, which suspended the execution of all death row prisoners.

Despite the imposition of capital punishment, cases of serious crimes were still increasing in the country. This made some quarters seek for its abolition, contending that it had been useless in preventing the commission of murder, rape and other heinous crimes.

But with the abolition of death penalty, heinous crimes have become rampant. Gruesome murder and rape have been happening everyday across the country.

The perpetrators know that even if convicted, there has been no lethal injection to worry about. Despite the gravity of their crimes, they still have a chance for freedom after a decade or two of serving their sentence.

The reason why capital punishment failed to work as crime prevention in the country was that authorities were not religiously implementing it. Only few were brought to death row from its reimposition in the 1990s to 2006.

Some sectors, especially the Catholic Church, would confirm that death penalty has never been the answer to the rising heinous crimes in the country. But the truth is, it is the state that is largely to blame for capital punishment's failure to do its job.