Thoughts About the Retraction of Death Penalty

After the successful May 2016 National and Local Elections, again the country, Philippines is now beneath a cloud of disagreement over the Retraction of Death Penalty on Maximum Security Prisons – perpetrators of heinous crimes

We are aware of President Duterte’s take on this matter – in which he is very much eager to revoke the temporary lifting of the punishment BUT the Commission on Human Rights and other groups are opposed to it.  Again, I am not writing this to support any sides.  I am here to give you what I think pushes each side to stand on their ground.

Positive Side/In Favor
Pro-Death Penalty

- it may discourage or at least warn the criminals of committing heinous crimes that might subject them to the penalty.

- Drug Lords who are said to be ‘alive and kicking’ and as they say and STILL masterminding drug activities outside the prison thru their continuous leadership and connections can be lined-up for immediate execution.  I can see that this has weight – drug pushers as well as users have been an ordinary scenario in the country in the past years.



The incoming President has expressed his wrath over the pushers and has shown mercy for the users – that he even said that if a pusher fights and refuse to surrender – the police should not think twice of defending themselves against them even at the cost of the ‘pushers’ life. And he also added that he never wanted his (our) country be the home for psychotics – that is not far from reality.. .  He wanted to HANG these culprits who circulate drugs in the country and rehabilitate his beloved countrymen who get addicted to it as well as give them another chance of a BETTER and more productive life and living.

******
Illegal Drugs affect the motor and psycho-ability of a person using it.  There are kind of illicit drug that causes user’s desperation, hallucinations and other mind-inducing violence. In the US, several incidents of school firing happened and the possibility of drug influence is not zeroed-out in the motives of the suspect

Side Story:
In the past week, I witnessed how illegal drugs had conquered my fellow-countrymen.  A grandmother, a wife, teenagers, minors, even cops (some not all), some dirty politicians had been involved in the black market. The deals on pushing were not so clandestine anymore that it is done just anywhere, in the streets, in a private residence of a middle-class or I can say poor families.  Many were caught right-handed in the buy-bust operations. Why? Because drugs is sold in tiniest (retailed per gram if I am not mistaken) quantity and cheapest price that has been even made affordable to the curious students and people who do not have a job to sustain the addiction.  That is how prevalent it is in the country today. 

***
The latest is the widespread trading- even in youth parties and events – like in the recent  ‘Close-up’ gathering that caused the death of five innocent youngsters who were unaware that a glass of drink passed-on they sipped is contaminated with the ‘ecstasy’ drug in a tablet form. Experts said that it rendered their heart and other organs’ failure.

In fact, self-confessed users have surfaced especially in Quezon City that Mayor Herbert Bautista has given the drug users in his city AMNESTY. They have been asked to surrender to the operatives (policemen with portable mic and speakers announcing on every corner) ad be ready for rehabilitation. 

Important:
In an interview of an authority (PDEA) – rehab might cost around twenty  thousand pesos but can be FREELY obtained with just a CERTIFICATION from Barangay Officials that the subject is INDIGENT.

One time, around one thousand five hundred citizens have voluntarily submitted to the authorities and another seven hundred in QC alone as I watch the news the other day. When interviewed (their faces were not shown in the camera ) they have confessed that they feared the recent killings (in a shootout) of drug-involved individuals by the cops and drug operatives and a man even tactlessly saying that he is afraid Duterte might take the first step on him. Whew, it only took a brave and straightforward leader to intimidate them!

 - Death Penalty is sure to compensate the monstrous criminals  who killed other people heartlessly, raped and killed children and women helplessly, those who have kidnapped people for ransom and eventually killing the victims even after the relatives have paid them or in the event that they have not raised the amount of ransom ordered.


- Why the CHR could have thoughtfully considered the side of the criminals, how come they have not thought of the victims and their families?!  A months-old baby, a three year-old girl raped and killed brutally, people who died just because of their mobile phones or gadgets?!  Massacre victims (others were buried alive just because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time)? Are not those criminals inhuman enough?! Or maybe they are the alter-ego of Satan?! Do not they deserve to die?! When wealthy prisoners live in an airconditioned cells with complete amenities – is justice been served righteously?!

The President want the penalty be done thru hanging – he is telling that electrocution will cost us energy, why the hell he would spend for their execution…hanging in public is the best way he thought of – it will take only a rope to accomplish it and frighten the would-be-villains.

- Drug trading involvement cases are considered heinous because most of the murders and rape where done under the influence of drugs (if not, I doubt if they can do that UNLESS they are abnormal!)

- Only criminals who have committed ‘HEINOUS CRIMES’ as defined by the constitution shall be put to death. Here is a link of the PHilConst.  Here is the link on the complete copy of the RA 7659


this EXCLUDES ordinary robbers, thieves, petty-crime offenders.

Cons
(Negative Side)/Not in Favor
Death Penalty
(with Rebuttal Arguments)

-Commision on Human Rights (CHR) opposes as the chairperson said – the act of imprisonment is a punishment itself.

That is if the person is suffering behind bars – what is common to well-off offenders are just mere RESTRICTION from leaving the prison premises – life? Having mobile phones, internet access, high-tech gadgets, foamed beds, airconditioned cells, one recently demolished even got a swimming pool.

-Another thing the chairperson is telling is that it refuses to give people a chance to renew their lives. Like the kidnappers and drug pushers as they say that only ‘poverty’ has caused them to err. And that some of them have not murdered anybody.

-She also emphasized the possibility of getting the wrong persons to be penalized.  (I do not agree with it, because ALL convicted criminals has passed SERIES OF COURT TRIALS and been judged WITHOUT reasonable doubt to have committed the crime. 

The burden just lies to the justice system that corruption must be truly eradicated so that no innocent man can be a ‘fall guy’ (just accused to make it appear that a case is solved) to a crime, that no investigator, policeman, or even judge can serve justice for a PRICE.  That we must be assured that selective justice is just a nightmare and could not be real. 

I am again an ordinary citizen, putting my whole trust in your governance, President Duterte – hoping that you will not fail us and our descendants. 

No comments:

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
Family, Daily Living & Style by Angelita Galiza-Madera is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.