Philippines - President Aquino remains cold to proposals to reimpose death penalty

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Manila, Philippines - President Aquino remains cold to proposals to reimpose death penalty amid efforts in the Senate to start the debates on the issue.

Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Aquino continues to have reservations against death penalty because of his concerns on the judicial system.

“During the campaign, he (Aquino) mentioned that death penalty assumes that our judicial system is good. But we know for a fact that in our judicial system, in our judicial framework, sometimes those with weak legal representation are prejudiced,” Lacierda said in a press briefing on Wednesday.

“To the best of my knowledge, that position remains the same. There were no discussions after that,” he added.

Lacierda noted that any wrong judgment on a case involving death penalty would be irreversible.

“He’s looking at the entire judicial framework, how we can improve judicial framework ensuring that the judgment that would be made will be right, fair, and just,” he said.

Earlier, Sen. Vicente Sotto III reiterated the need to restore the death penalty following the killing of the mother of actress Cherry Pie Picache in Quezon City last week. Senate President Franklin Drilon said the debates on the death penalty should start to determine if it can solve criminality in the country.

The death penalty was abolished in 1987 during the time of President Corazon Aquino, but it was revived in 1993 under the administration of President Fidel Ramos.

Among the crimes that were punishable by death were murder, rape, kidnapping and drug trafficking.

In 2001, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo imposed a moratorium on death penalty but lifted it two years following a series of murders and kidnappings.

She, however, did not sign any execution order and commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment.

In 2006, Arroyo signed a law abolishing death penalty, believing that state resources should be used in controlling crime instead of taking the lives of criminals.

Alexis Romero