MANILA, 25 June 2006 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a law abolishing the death penalty yesterday, finally putting an end to the controversial measure that has divided the Filipino people for more than a decade.
Amid protests by the families of victims of heinous crimes and other death penalty advocates, Arroyo said the death of capital punishment in the country does not mean a slackening in the campaign against criminality.
“We shall continue to devote the increasing weight of our resources to the prevention and control of serious crimes, rather than take the lives of those who commit them,” said the 59-year-old leader, who is suspected of signing the new law to earn “brownie points” from the Vatican and European Union leaders.
Arroyo is to leave for the Vatican today with a delegation of Cabinet members and businessmen for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI.
The presidential palace in Manila said the visit seeks “to reaffirm the (Philippines’) special ties with Vatican.” The Philippines is the third largest Catholic country in the world and the largest in Asia.
Noting that she was signing the law a day after a car bomb killed six people in southern Philippines, she said, “We will never be intimidated by these treacherous acts, and we shall fight terror as seriously as we embrace peace and development.”
“We will not relent until the total defeat of terrorists in every part of the country,” she said. “We have taken a strong hand against the threats to the law and the republic, but at the same time we yield to the high moral imperatives dictated by God to walk away from capital punishment.”
Papal Nuncio Archbishop Fernando Filoni, the Vatican’s envoy to Manila, congratulated Arroyo and legislators who approved the measure.
“This could be another very important, nice step to go on in showing that the culture of life is very alive and important in this country,” Filoni said. “We cannot speak about human rights when death penalty is imposed.”
Arroyo signed the law shortly after returning to the presidential palace from a hospital where she went Thursday with acute diarrhea.
Maria Socorro Diokno, secretary-general of the Free Legal Assistance Group, said that — depending on the specifics of cases — death sentences will be replaced by up to 40 years in prison without parole, or by life imprisonment with the possibility of a presidential pardon.
She said one reason for halting the death penalty was the possibility of wrongful execution. The Supreme Court has overturned seven out of 10 lower-court death sentences since 1993. Congress two weeks earlier had approved a bill abolishing capital punishment, despite protests from anti-crime activists who believe Arroyo, a staunch Roman Catholic, rushed its approval to please the pope. Dante Jimenez, founder of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, said the measure could prompt relatives of crime victims to “take the law into their hands.” Lawyer Leonard de Vera of the Equal Justice Movement asked why the government appeared to be neglecting the victims of crime.
“Because they could no longer vote? They could no longer campaign?” de Vera said. He said he expected the death penalty to be restored, calling it “the only way to prevent crimes.” Sen. Manuel Villar, who supports the ban, however, said capital punishment had not deterred crime. Arroyo was set to leave for the Vatican today.
She is scheduled to meet separately with Pope Benedict XVI and Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano before traveling to Spain.
, where she will hold talks with King Juan Carlos III and Prime Minister Jose Luis Gonzalez Zapatero.
The Philippines’ 1987 Constitution abolished the death penalty, which the government of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos had used to execute about a dozen people convicted of rape and drug charges.
But Congress restored it in 1993 for crimes such as murder, child rape and kidnapping. Seven have since been executed.
The abolition of capital punishment will spare the lives of more than 1,200 death-row convicts, including at least 11 Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
— With Input From Agencies
Reaction of Filipinos in the Kingdom on the Abolition of the Death Penalty
When the death penalty was reimposed in the Philippines in 1993, Filipinos at home and abroad were bitterly divided. Thirteen years later yesterday, with only seven death convicts put to death, its abolition with the stroke of a pen by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo showed the same mixed reaction. Below are comments by Filipinos in the Kingdom, some of which were translated from the Filipino language:
Elmer Fuentes, IT project manager of a bank in Jeddah: My human instinct favors the “eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth” brand of justice but my moral instinct tells me to do otherwise...I should learn to forgive (even if it will be very difficult) and give the offender a chance to change and restore himself. I don’t want to stain my hand with the blood of another person. Vengeance is NOT mine, it is God’s.
I also believe that it is the government’s task to enforce the laws (prevention), give penalty whenever it is due (control), and provide room for rehabilitation of the offender, not death! (restore).
Jo Endique, registrar, Future Generation Philippine International School, Riyadh: Spiritually speaking, that’s a nice move. Diyos lamang ang may karapatang bumawi sa ating buhay (Only God has the right to take away our lives).
Rod Delfino, educational counselor, Pioneer House, Riyadh: The fact that criminality in the Philippines did not subside more than a decade after than imposition of capital punishment only shows that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime as claimed by those who advocate it. Therefore it’s just right to abolish it because the ‘eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ concept belongs to an era long gone.
CJ Magallanes, a media person in Dubai: Capital punishment has no place in the 21st century. Death penalty, even for the most heinous crimes, doesn’t make sense — because a life for a life makes everybody dead, just as an eye for an eye makes everybody blind.
Abolishing death penalty allows the power of forgiveness to take its due course and is part of the march of civilization toward a more humane world.
Jimmy Ulanday, president of FilJed Divers League, Jeddah: I’m in favor of abolition because I believe that everyone had the right to live. Man is not by nature a killer. He becomes such by an unfavorable environment or society, especially where too much hardship.
Ernie Cala, mechanical engineer, Jeddah: People who commit crimes can reform. But the moment you kill them, you deny them the chance to reform. We should not deny a person his life just because of one wrongdoing.
Ronnie Abeto, volunteer, Pusong Mamon Task Force, Yanbu:
That’s a welcome decision for pro-life advocates like me. However, our politicians should not use the issue to gain so-called “brownie points.” Such political self-righteousness is tantamount to playing with the lives of inmates.
Moreover, appropriate programs by the Bureau of Penitentiary on life rehabilitation and human development must follow, otherwise such abolition is meaningless and will serve no purpose.
Gani Manalo, executive director of Gawad Kalinga, Eastern Province: I prefer the imposition of life imprisonment so that time will serve the punishment and at the same time fulfilling God’s right to submit any criminal person to a capital judgment of death.
Sammy Perez, president of the Ras Tanura OFW Association: The death penalty is not a solution to the Pilippines’ crime problem. What we need is to strengthen our justice system and ensure that the guilty ones don’t get unpunished. The government must show it means business when it comes to discipline and protecting the rights of every Filipino.
Ernie Mapanao, president, OFW Congress in the Eastern Province: It is but right to lift the death penalty. However, I agree that when the heinous crimes rise again, the death penalty should be reimposed.
Benchito Guerra, certified public accountant, Saudi Cable, Jeddah: I am for the imposition of the death penalty but only on rape, murder and drug trafficking.
Numer Figueroa, Basic Chemical Industries, Dammam: How about the victims of those heinous crimes?
Ronald Nilo, martial arts instructor, Jeddah: It was too early to repeal the death penalty law. They should have given it more time to become an effective deterrent to criminality.
Rally Zamora, chairman of the Filipino Ten-Pin Bowlers, Jeddah: I believe that those who commit the most heinous crimes ought to be meted the harshest penalty such as death. But I also advocate extreme care in carrying out the penalty to prevent the commission of another injustice.
(From interviews by Alexander Asuncion in Riyadh, Dinan Arana in Dammam and Francis Salud in Jeddah)
