MANILA (UCAN): In his State of the Nation Address on July 27, Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, tried to present the death penalty as a panacea to the country’s drug problem. He claimed that reviving it for drug trafficking and other heinous crimes would instill fear among criminals.
The death penalty was suspended in the Philippines in 2006 when former president, Gloria Arroyo, approved a moratorium that was continued by her successor, Benigno Aquino.
However, Bishop Joel Baylon of Legazpi, chairperson of the bishops’ Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, said in a statement that the perceived effects of the death penalty had been “repeatedly debunked” in various studies.
“The Church has always maintained that capital punishment, in whatever form it comes, is never a deterrent to crime. Studies have proven this time and again,” he said.
Bishop Baylon also suggested that instead of reviving the death penalty, the Duterte administration should focus on more dignified options.
“With the death penalty, justice is nothing but punishment and never a way to reform the offender. But true justice is restorative, never punitive,” Bishop Baylon said.
Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga said reviving the death penalty would weaken the Philippines’ bargaining chips in negotiating for Filipinos on death row abroad.
“With the death penalty, we lose moral authority and credibility to beg for life, to save lives of our imprisoned overseas Filipino workers,” he said.
“We convince countries like Saudi Arabia that the Philippines is a Catholic country whose people are life-loving. We believe that people change for the better. With the death penalty, we lose authority in saying the same to countries that impose the death penalty,” the bishop said.
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Jesuit Father Silvino Borres, president of the Coalition Against Death Penalty, said criminals had an “affirmative right to rehabilitation.”
“Whenever you call for the death of another person, even just in thoughts, we are already sinning against the Lord who calls everyone to life. Even if he calls for justice for sinners and those who committed crimes, he calls for them to live and be rehabilitated because the Lord does not delight in the death of the wicked,” he said in a homily during a Mass following the president’s address.
Father Borres said that despite the death penalty being suspended in the Philippines, the culture of death was flourishing.
“Be also mindful that even though, legally speaking, there is no state-sanctioned killing, we know that a culture of death is still here among us,” he added.
