Eleazar says justice system needs to be 'strengthened' after defending it as PNP chief
MANILA, Philippines — After first defending the justice system as chief of the national police, senatorial aspirant Guillermo Eleazar on Tuesday pointed to the need to strengthen the justice system before imposing death penalty.
"I'm after improving our criminal justice system, because for me, if we ensure that the criminals get punished, in essence, that’s the best crime prevention," he said Tuesday morning in an interview aired over ABS-CBN News Channel.
Eleazar made this statement in asserting his stance that he would only favor capital punishment if the country has a "perfect system."
But he didn't always see things that way, as his statement on Tuesday marks a significant departure from his pronouncements from earlier this year.
"The Philippine justice system works. Proof of this is the conviction of the policemen for the killing of Kian delos Santos," Eleazar said as PNP chief in late August this year.
This came in response to an International Criminal Court Registry report stating that 94% of the families and friends of drug war victims want the ICC to look into the Duterte administration's crimes against humanity in the conduct of its so-called war on drugs.
“We welcome this significant development in the criminal complaint filed against [Julian] Ongpin. This shows that the justice system in the Philippines is working and that the rule of law applies to all,” Eleazar said again in October after Ongpin, son of former trade secretary Robert Ongpin, was indicted.
The Duterte administration and its Philippine National Police are facing scrutiny by the international court over their drug war, where official police data acknowledges over 6,100 deaths in official police operations.
Rights groups both here and abroad say the death toll may be as high as 30,000 due to unreported killings.
"No, I am not for death penalty...It’s better to free or acquit ten guilty persons rather than to make suffer or to convict one innocent man,” Eleazar said Tuesday.
He went on to defend the war on drugs anew as a senatorial candidate.
"It wasn't a perfect campaign. We saw mistakes that are being investigated," he said in mixed Filipino and English. "We could have focused on the preventive and rehabilitation and reintegration back into the community."
The former PNP chief is running for senator under Partido Reporma, whose standard-bearer in former PNP chief and Sen. Panfilo Lacson, himself had a change of heart regarding the death penalty.
Earlier this month, Lacson formally withdrew his principal authorship of the Senate bill seeking to reimpose the death penalty for heinous crimes.
“It is better that the guilty be imprisoned for life than to have innocents executed because of a wrong judgment,” he said then in a statement. — Franco Luna
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