Palma urges solons to rethink death penalty revival

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma reminds solons, especially those coming from Cebu, to make sure they will bring the real sentiments of the people in dealing with efforts of some sectors to revive the death penalty in the Philippines.

Palma believed that Cebuanos and majority of the Catholic faithful are against the Death Penalty as they understand that this is not the answer to the problem of heinous crimes and illegal drugs. He hoped that the 10 Congressmen from Cebu will listen to the voice of the people.

"Please bring the sentiments of the people… We at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and I believe as many other people, are really anxious about the efforts to revive the death penalty. And therefore they [the solons] should study it well and I pray that the results should be that the desire to revive it will not pass congress," said Palma.

Similar to archdiocese of Manila, the Cebu archbishop also said that they would also come up with a "prayer" against the revival of the death penalty as agreed upon at the Catholic Bishop's Conference of the Philippines.

Palma said we should be a society that is progressing and that the move to revive the death penalty is just like Filipinos giving up on being "a people who are compassionate."

Admittedly, Palma said the revival of the death penalty was a surprise to the Church because all along they thought that the state and the church had already agreed that death penalty "is not the best answer to heinous crime."

The archbishop said that there is always a better way to address the problems confronting the Philippines because "death penalty is not the best deterrent" to crime.

He said that the CBCP and the Archdiocese of Cebu will be in the forefront in asking legislators to think about these proposals "most seriously and hopefully find other ways and means to the crucial issues that confront us but not resort immediately to the revival of the death penalty." (FREEMAN)