ADPAN URGES PHILIPPINES TO BE STRONG AND REJECT ATTEMPTS TO RE-INTRODUCE THE DEATH PENALTY
ADPAN (Anti Death Penalty Asia Network) is shocked that the
Philippines seems adamant about moving forward with plans to
re-introduce the death penalty. The death penalty has been suspended
since 2006, and Philippines is now considered an abolitionist country.
On 28 July 2016, the newly convened Philippine Congress heard a
proposal to re-impose the death penalty for “heinous crimes”, giving
priority to President Rodrigo Duterte’s push for capital punishment in
its first legislative session.
Since late June 2016, House Bill No.1 and several other Bills seeking
to re-introduce the death penalty have been filed for consideration of
the Philippines Congress. These Bill seeks to reimpose capital
punishment for human trafficking, illegal recruitment, plunder, treason,
parricide, infanticide, rape, qualified piracy, bribery, kidnapping,
illegal detention, robbery with violence against or intimidation of
persons, car theft, destructive arson, terrorism and drug-related cases.
ADPAN is hopeful that Filipinos and lawmakers that are abolitionist
will prevail, and death penalty will not be reintroduced in this ASEAN
nation.
Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said the measure is anti-poor and
that the death penalty has not been proven to deter heinous crimes.
“What deters the commission of crimes are certainty of apprehension,
speedy prosecution and inevitable conviction once warranted,…The death
penalty is anti-poor because indigent and marginalized accused cannot
afford the high cost of [top] caliber and influential lawyers to secure
their acquittal.”
Senator Leila de Lima, who continues to oppose the death penalty, is
proposing a law to impose “qualified reclusion perpetua” for those found
guilty of heinous crimes. Those punished with “qualified reclusion
perpetua” would not be eligible for parole at all.
RE-INTRODUCTION OF DEATH PENALTY A VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
The Philippines signed International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR) on December 19, 1966 and ratified it on October 23, 1986.
It signed the Second Optional Protocol on September 20, 2006 which
explicitly forbids states who have ratified it from conducting
executions within their respective jurisdictions: “No one within the
jurisdiction of a State Party to the present Protocol shall be
executed.”
However, it provides for one exception: Countries who expressed
reservations only during the time of ratification or accession may
resort to the death penalty in times of war for those convicted of “a
most serious crime of a military nature committed during wartime.”.
Philippines cannot claim the exception because it did not make this
reservation when it ratified the Second Optional Protocol.
As, such the re-introduction of the death penalty would also be considered a violation of international law.
RE-IMPOSITION OF DEATH PENALTY PROVEN AN INEFFECTIVE SOLUTION TO FIGHT CRIME
ADPAN joins Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for Human
Rights, in urging Phlipines ‘to remember the experience of Mongolia,
which first abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in the
1950s, then reintroduced it, before deciding, last December, to once
again stop executing people. In reaching the decision, President
Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj said the people of Mongolia had suffered enough
from the death penalty. In his words: “Removing the death penalty does
not mean removing punishment. Criminals fear justice, and justice must
be imminent and unavoidable. But we cannot repair one death with
another.” ‘
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, added, ‘Fear, despair and
frustration clearly prevail among all Filipinos amid a rise in crime and
drug-related offenses. But it is the duty of political leaders to adopt
solutions to the country’s challenges in ways that will support the
rule of law and advance the protection of human rights…The arguments are
convincing and decisive: On every level—from principle to practice—use
of the death penalty is wrong.
DEATH PENALTY INEFFECTIVE AND HIGH RISK OF IRREPARABLE MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE
ADPAN reiterates that there are no credible evidence that the death
penalty deters crime. As an example, in Malaysia in 2012, despite the
existence of the mandatory death penalty for drug trafficking, it was
revealed in Parliament that there was in fact an increase of the persons
arrested for drug trafficking.
The possibility of miscarriage or failure of justice in the
implementation of the death penalty is irreversible and irreparable.
There has just been too many cases, where persons who have languished on
death row for decades have been released. We recall that in January
2011, Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice admitted that Chiang Kuo-ching, a
private in the Air Force, had been executed in error in 1997 for a
murder committed 15 years previously.
The global trend has been towards abolition. Philippines did us
proud, when it abolished the death penalty in 2006, and it is hoped that
Philippines will reaffirm its commitment to abolition when it stands
strong and rejects attempts to re-introduce the draconian death penalty.
ADPAN urges the Philippine lawmakers to opposes attempts to bring back the death penalty,
For and on behalf of
ADPAN (Anti Death Penalty Asia Network)
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