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Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago and Sen. Joker Arroyo opposed Monday
the proposal in the House of Representatives to study the
reimposition of the death penalty, while Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri and
Sen. Panfilo Lacson supported the move.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez stressed also on
Monday that the recent surge of violence in the country is no reason
to reimpose the death penalty law, which President Gloria Arroyo
abolished two years ago.
Death penalty for crimes considered as heinous
was first imposed in the Ninth Congress, and then abolished two
years ago. The move to reimpose capital punishment came after a
series of heinous crimes in Laguna that had resulted in the death of
at least 18 persons from two separate incidents.
The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption has
urged the government to reinstate the death penalty law following
the bloody killings in Laguna.
Santiago said that when she was a regional trial
court judge in Quezon City, she did not notice any terror in the
face of the accused when threatened with death penalty.
“Apparently, criminals who go to the extent of
murdering people are not deterred by the death penalty,” she said.
She added that while she is not underestimating
the heinousness of the crimes in Laguna, there are remedies other
than capital punishment, like rehabilitation of the accused.
For Zubiri, the death penalty should be imposed
on crimes like drug trafficking and multiple homicide. He voted in
the 13th Congress against the abolition of death penalty.
“We are not opening the doors to capital
punishment on several crimes as it was in the past, but just
limiting it to two heinous crimes—drug trafficking and multiple
murder. Homicide cases and massacres have been on the rise these
previous months,” he said.
He cited cases where criminals trade illegal
drugs even inside the jails, which serve as their haven from rival
drug syndicates.
Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine
National Police, also favored a review of the ban on capital
punishment.
“We should discuss this anew. There was a
sentiment then to abolish it but now, there have been so many
incidents that perhaps, it could be a deterrent to future crimes,”
he said.
Lacson recalled that when the first death
convict, Leo Echegaray, was executed, the number of rape
complainants increased.
“They [rape victims] were encouraged. Before,
they thought nothing would come out of their complaint,” he said
House to revisit death penalty
House Speaker Prospero Nograles on Monday said
that it is about time to revisit the revival of the death penalty
law and let the judiciary decide on the imposition of that
punishment.
Nograles was recently asked by militant farmers
to help solve the recent murder of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Southern
Mindanao Region spokesperson Celso Pojas, who was killed in the
district of Nograles in Davao City.
Aside from the murder of the farmer leader,
Nograles is alarmed with the recent killings in Laguna.
Nograles said that the abolition of the death
penalty does not deter heinous crimes, and Congress should open its
debate on the issue.
He said that the judiciary has the wisdom to
discern the attendant circumstances on whether the death penalty
should be imposed on a particular crime committed.
“Maybe we should revisit and debate [its]
restoration again in Congress, but leave the imposition of the death
penalty as an exception to the rule, and let the judiciary use its
discretion to impose it,” Nograles said.
At the Justice department, Gonzalez said what is
needed is efficient law enforcement to deter the commission of
crimes, and to speed up the resolution of pending cases.
“The series of violent crimes while alarming
does not call or justify the re-enactment of the death penalty,”
Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez also said that majority of governments
around the world had already removed the death penalty from their
statute books on criminal punishment.
“There are no studies yet showing the value of
the death penalty. Admittedly it [death penalty] can scare some
criminals from committing crime, but not the hardened ones,” he
said.
-- Efren L. Danao, Sammy Martin and William B. Depasupil
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