Jamea James Marie M.

Sarabillo XI- Faraday

From the start of Duterte’s reign, the topic of death penalty has been a hot issue

that is been discussed in the country alongside the anti-drug issue. Duterte is known for

being a “Pro death penalty” and now 3 years into his presidency the percentage of death

penalty being legal is high and in today’s time many individuals are agreeing it being a

law, but though a lot people might see this as something positive but the death penalty

bill also has negative sides to it. Capital punishment or death penalty is defined as “a

government-sanctioned practice whereby a person is killed by the state as a punishment

for a crime.”. According to Tures, out of 50 states in United States of America, 25 states

have the highest crime rate but only 20 of them legalized death penalty. Over 70% of the

world's nations have abolished the death penalty in law or practice. The U.S. is an

exception among its close partners in its continued with use of capital punishment (Death

Penalty Information Center, 2019). Even if the international law does not prohibit death

penalty, some of the nations consider it as a violation or a sin since it is against human

rights and it is inhumane. During the Pre-Spanish era, Filipinos albeit infrequently

practiced death penalty. The Spaniards also forced it on locals who rebelled against them

and in American time, it was remained. In 1965-1886, the Martial Law, then in Cory

Aquino’s term it was abolished, and in during Ramos presidency, it was re-imposed. It

was also existed in Estrada and Arroyo’s term. And now Death penalty is now an active

and a very serious issue here in the Philippines. One of the 140 countries that have

stopped the death penalty either in law or in practice, is the Philippines, as part of a global

trend away from capital punishment (Amnesty International, 2015, cited in “The Death
Penalty Worldwide”). Yet there have been frequent calls for the Philippines to restore

death penalty, with current Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wanting to reinstate it.

(Andolong, CNN Philippines, 2016). Furthermore, in Davao City, members of the City

Council share different views on House Bill 4727 or the Death Penalty bill recently passed

by the House of Representatives. One of the members of the City Council, Bernard Al-ag

says he personally support the bill but asked why the bill only punishes dreadful crimes

connected to drugs. (Condeza, Davao Today, 2017). I, as one of the people of the country

of the Philippines, is against death penalty because death Penalty is against human rights

and it is inhumane. What will this bill contribute to reduce inhumane crimes, while this

penalty is also inhumane? My take: Death penalty or capital punishment should not be

legalized in the Philippines because it is not practical in the Philippines, the outcome is

permanent or the risk of executing innocent people, it violates human rights and it is

inhumane, and lastly, it doesn’t prevent criminals.

Capital Punishment should be abolished because it is not practical in the

Philippines because of damaged judicial system, it also opposes the Filipino culture and

values. According to Valderrama, she stated in her essay about the practicality of death

penalty that, “For the death penalty to be practical and efficient, a fair criminal justice

system is essential. However, the criminal justice system in our country is full of defects

such as faulty police work, coerced confessions, inept defense counsel, perjured

testimony and trial court decisions based on seemingly inconclusive evidence. In addition,

the Supreme Court, in a 2004 decision, made 72% judicial errors. How can death penalty

be a practical one when the judiciary of the country is inefficient and full of incompetence?”

“We have to address the long pestering issue of impunity. Poor law enforcement results
in breakdown of law and order.”. Additionally, it also opposes the majority of Filipino

culture and values since we Filipinos, value life. In a sense that we want that bill to be

legalized because we don’t want killings to happen yet we “impose killing for killing”. We,

Filipinos say that death penalty should only for terrible crimes but at the end, yes, we

know what or crimes should have severe punishment but do we know enough to choose

which life to take and when we take it? (Acutina, Ambrocio, Chan, Cuenca, Cutinha,

Gerafil, 2017). Furthermore, in the Philippines, it is mostly populated with Catholics that

believe that death penalty is illegal. On a different side, many would argue that death

penalty is practical because it can stop, reduce heinous acts, the general thinking of the

society that if the punishment is great enough it will let them not to commit severe crimes

or illegal acts. But we have to acknowledge, that it will not make our country better, yes

death penalty can help to reduce crimes, but there are more ways to do that, that is

imprisonment.

Death penalty can risk executing innocent people and it is permanent, you can’t

take it back. These things happen even the country and its justice system are proper and

developed, one of the reasons why this happen because of Human Failure. In 2004, a

case of a Texas man, Cameron Todd Willingham, found innocent after his execution, a

further evidence revealed that Willingham is not found guilty in that crime. If you will be

executed it is final. Mistakes that are made cannot be undone. An innocent person may

be free from imprisonment for an act they did not do, but death penalty is irreversible.

Death penalty is also used in a wrong manner that does not favor to the poor, minorities

and members of racial, ethnic and political and religious groups. However, many

individuals will argue that it is said that innocents can be found guilty but the situation
can also be viewed in an opposite way where the criminals whose crime they’ve

committed are heinous and have proven themselves guilty by doing things ( e.g. escaping

the prison, influential people, false records, etc. ) because of the flawed justice system of

the Philippines they can escape life-long imprisonment, which is the greatest punishment

the Philippine Justice system can be given to the criminals as of this time, they can escape

and cut down the length of their imprisonment to life imprisonment to years, if that’s the

only thing that our justice system can do, how can we achieve the justice we want for the

victims. But whether they are guilty or innocent, their lives are claimed by a system of

justice that values retribution over rehabilitation. The prisoner can hope for rehabilitation

as long he is alive or to be discharge if they are later found to be innocent. To resolve that

issue, death penalty is not the answer, any human who executes criminals is committing

the same crime they condemn.

It violates human rights and it is inhumane. It violates the basic human rights, and

it is the right to live. Death penalty violates the rights of the people not to be subjected to

suffering, cruel and inhumane punishments or acts. According to Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui,

“All executions violate the right to life. Those carried out publicly are a gross affront to

human dignity which cannot be tolerated.”. There’s no humane way of killing. While others

will say that justice should prevail, and the criminals should be executed because of the

crimes that he has done, he lost his own humanity after doing that terrible crime, A serious

crimes must have a great penalty and that is death. Justice can dignify a person. But

death penalty is not for justice, it is for revenge, if the loved ones wants to kill the criminal,

they indirectly killed someone, it will not genuinely stop their sufferings and but it will
extend their sufferings. The death penalty is unjust and is really wrong. When someone

kill someone else, the right penalty is not to murder him or her, but to try and help them.

Lastly, criminal punishment doesn’t reduce the crime rates and it doesn’t prevent

criminals. Based on research, there is no evidence that death penalty is effective for the

prevention of illegal acts. The government or the society uses death penalty to scare the

people or to silence their enemies. Since Canada ended death penalty, their murder rate

has dropped by 44%. According to the NC Coalition “…most people on death row

committed their crimes in the heat of passion, while under the influence of drugs or

alcohol, or while suffering from mental illness. They represent a group that is highly

unlikely to make rational decisions based on a fear of future consequences for their

actions.”. So According to Bedau H (1982), Most individuals have a natural fear of death-

it’s a character, a man have to think about what will occur before we act, if we don’t think

it intentionally, we will think about it unintentionally. Think, if every murderer who

murdered someone died suddenly, the homicide rate would be very low because no one

wants or like to die. But it is possible that crimes rates reduced because of death penalty

and its effectiveness if the statistics showed reducing of crime rates. However, there is

no effectiveness and proof that death penalty can lower the number of criminals and death

penalty has so many cons that can affect the country, the society and even yourself.

While this in mind, death penalty or capital punishment should be abolished by

using our voice and share our voices, by using social media as an advantage, as a

millennial, use social media as an instrument to be heard by other people and the

government. We must execute justice and not the people. We can protect our country

from criminals by imprisonment not death penalty, instead of executing them, we should
help them by giving them a chance and let them discover their true selves and their own

beauty. We should also let them have special labor work in the prison. This should be

done to save ourselves for killing someone at the same time they can help their own

country especially the Philippine economy. If it will be legalized, then many people will be

killed and many of us will be murderers. As stated by Mahatma Gandhi, “an eye for an

eye will only make the whole world blind.”