Palma: Death penalty not answer to drug problem

CEBU, Philippines - “The answer to heinous crimes would not be immediately death penalty because we know the lapses of the law, but probably stricter way of enforcing the law and other ways to deter crime,” Cebu Archbishop José Palma told reporters yesterday.

Palma recognized that the issue on reviving death penalty has been subjected to debates; while some advocate for its reintroduction, others also go against this form of punishment citing that it does not answer the problem.

Several people including lawmakers, like Senator Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto, had been calling for the revival of death penalty particularly for high-level drug traffickers.

Palma said the Catholic Church’s stand is to resolve the curbing of heinous crime, not through death penalty, but to resort to other means, taking into account other significant perspectives.

The 66-year-old prelate said that the way the Catholic Church views it, a people that uphold sanctity of life signifies a “growing and improving community.”

President Rodrigo Duterte, even during his electoral campaign, had been open on his desire to restore death penalty in the country as a means to dissuade criminals, particularly those involved in illegal drug trafficking.

Since the administration launched its campaign against criminality and illegal drugs, the body count of personalities involved in the drug trade continues to increase.

Though Palma supports the campaign of the present administration, he reiterated that suspected criminals should be accorded due legal process.

“It should be within the armpit of the law. That’s why, anything extrajudicial, we feel this may not be the best way to answer all of this. We begin to be concerned and afraid knowing that so many had died,” he said.

It saddens Palma that there are also circumstances that the campaign might result to tragic situations especially when innocent lives are dragged into the killings.

Though he could not deny that the illegal drug trade is the “mother of many crimes,” Palma said there are several aspects that authorities should evaluate to come up with “more realistic way of addressing this problem in our nation.”  (FREEMAN)