Tough fight looms over death penalty

MANILA, Philippines – Incoming president Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to restore the death penalty faces strong opposition, including from the dominant Roman Catholic Church and officials.

Among the critics of the revival of capital punishment is Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, who is leading in the vice presidential race.

The tough-talking Duterte vowed on Monday to introduce executions by hanging after he takes office on June 30 as part of a ruthless law-and-order crackdown that would also include ordering state snipers to kill suspected criminals.

After putting to death seven convicted criminals by lethal injection in 1999-2000, the Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006, following stiff opposition from the Catholic Church, the religion of 80 percent of Filipinos.

However, Duterte won by a landslide on a platform of being tough on crime, often promising in public to kill criminals and narrating how he personally executed hostage-takers in a prison riot.

“As people of faith, we do not adhere to capital punishment because we do not have the right to judge who should live and who should die,” said Father Lito Jopson, head of the Catholic bishops’ communications office.

Jopson also said that Duterte’s landslide election victory does not sway the bishops’ stance.

“It is not based on popularity... but rather on complete moral principles of the Catholic faith and faith demands we respect all persons’ human dignity,” he added.

Duterte said he would ask Congress to reintroduce capital punishment for drug trafficking, rape, murder, robbery and kidnapping-for-ransom, among other crimes.

While many newly elected members of Congress have joined Duterte’s ruling coalition, passing such a law is by no means assured, according to political science professor Javad Heydarian of De La Salle University Manila.

“Duterte at this point has tremendous political capital, and crime-busting is the centerpiece of his campaign,” Heydarian said.

“But he will face major pushback by human rights groups, the Catholic Church and likely... outgoing President Aquino, who once described his successor as a dictator in the making,” he added.

The plan itself is opposed by the Commission on Human Rights, an independent government body which Duterte cannot abolish and whose current officials he cannot replace. It reviews proposed legislation affecting civil liberties.

“We will do our best to lobby against the reimposition of the death penalty,” said Banuar Falcon, chief of the commission’s international division.

Robredo, for her part, said she opposes capital punishment.

“From the start, I have been against reimposing the death penalty. But this matter is up to Congress to decide,” Robredo said.

She noted it is the legislature and not the president that has the power to restore capital punishment.

She explained that Congress would have to pass a law repealing the abolition of the death penalty and prescribing it again for certain heinous crimes.

Another opponent of Duterte’s proposal is Rep. Lito Atienza of party-list group Buhay.

Atienza said there is no evidence that capital punishment prevents crime.

“What deters crime is the certainty of arrest, prosecution and punishment,” he said.

He said reimposing the death penalty would not lead to crime prevention if criminals were able to go around the law and the criminal justice system.

The local office of human rights monitor Amnesty International said it would also call on other rights groups to lobby Congress and educate the public against bringing back capital punishment.