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Month: August 2020

Laiko Statement on the Restoration of the Death Penalty

Restorative, Rehabilitative and with Access to Effective Legal Representation

The Sangguniang Laiko ng Pilipinas laments and decries the actuations of our elected lawmakers in calling back from its grave the death penalty proposals. 

We urge you to remove the blinders that prevent you from seeing that death penalty is an offense ‘against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person.’ Its reimposition will single out for punishment the most vulnerable sectors of society who have no means to defend themselves. Moreover, as a country, our failure to honor our commitment, with the International Community, not to bring back death penalty, will not only put us in a bad light but lose their respect as well.

We would rather that you focus your attention on:

•          how to combat the effects of COVID-19 through a comprehensive program for the health and safety of your constituents; 

•          the speedy enactment of laws that will reform our judicial and correctional systems and;

•          how to stop the flagrant reality of graft and corruption.  

SHEMA! Listen and heed the words of some of our greatest Presidents:

“Those who have less in life must have more in law” (President Ramon Magsaysay)

“Respect for basic human rights must continue to be one of our prime concerns. We must live up to our pledge to act as guardians of the dignity and worth of the individual.” (President Manuel L. Quezon)

We Must Stand for Life! Let us Choose Life!

For the Laiko Board of Directors, 

11 August 2020

Stand For Life

Statement of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP-ECPPC)

We at the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP-ECPPC) reiterate our strong opposition to the move to revive the death penalty in the Philippines for the following reasons:

  1. The death penalty violates the inherent dignity of a person, which is not lost despite the commission of a crime. No person, no matter how evil he is perceived to be, is beyond reformation. Pope Francis has clearly and unequivocally exhorted countless times that capital punishment is an offense “against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God’s plan for man and society” and “does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance.”1 Furthermore, in a statement in 2016, the Bishops stated that, “…when God had created man and woman, bringing human life upon the earth … God rested from the work of creation. In every human person is that incomparably precious breath of life from God himself… It is this Divine gift of life, sublime and unsurpassable, that the death penalty takes away. It is the breath of life, the gift of the Creator, that every judicial execution snatches and cuts short.”2
  2. There is no direct evidence to prove that the death penalty deters crime, as there are no conclusive studies, local or foreign, that would support this argument that it is indeed a deterrent. On the contrary, a 2009 research study found out that the consensus among criminologists is that the death penalty does not add any significant deterrent effect above that of long term imprisonment. Thus the general assertion that it indeed has a deterrent effect is merely speculative.3 Furthermore, crime statistics do not conclusively show that the death penalty deters the commission of crimes. Based on PNP data in the years after the abolition of the death penalty, crime volume has been actually decreasing4.
  3. The death sentence is irrevocable; once carried out, there is no possibility for rectifying an erroneous judgment by an imperfect system. With the death penalty justice is nothing but punishment. But true justice is restorative, never merely punitive. It gives the person the chance to change, no matter how slim the chance may be.
  4. The death penalty is tilted against the most vulnerable sectors of society, the marginalized and the poor. Experience shows that most, if not all persons meted the death penalty are the poor and uneducated, who cannot afford prominent lawyers to defend them.
  5. Being a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) enacted in 1989, as well as to the 2nd Optional Protocol of the ICCPR, the Philippines has committed before the international community not to re-impose the death penalty in the future. Reviving it will go against this commitment and will put our country in a bad light insofar as our standing in the community of nations is concerned.
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