Nation risks image, trade if death penalty returns

By Arjay L. Balinbin
Reporter

A PLAN to restore the death penalty could tarnish the Philippines’ global image and affect foreign trade, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) said, citing the country’s commitment to an international covenant against capital punishment.

“It sends a bad message that we are reneging on our contractual or treaty obligation,” CHR Spokesperson Jacqueline Ann C. de Guia said by telephone on Friday. “It has a lot of implications for our other commitments, whether economic or security.”

Ms. de Guia noted that International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, does not allow a signatory to withdraw.

The treaty, which took effect in 1976 and which the Philippines signed under former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, commits its parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life.

“Therefore, the commitment of the Philippine government is absolute in terms of not reimposing the death penalty,” she said.

President Rodrigo R. Duterte asked Congress in his yearly state of the nation address to reinstate the death penalty for drug trafficking, plunder and other heinous crimes. His spokesman has said the bill would be certified as urgent.

The strongest argument against restoring capital punishment is the country’s “immature” justice system, Ms. de Guia said.

“As long as there is corruption in law enforcement and other agencies, drugs will continue to proliferate,” she said. “The tendency to be influenced and to be bribed is still there.”

The country’s slow justice system is also a major factor especially with the dearth of policemen and prosecutors. “If we don’t have a mature judicial system, there is a risk that there will be some innocent people who might actually end up dead,” she added.

The Supreme Court in a 2004 decision admitted that out of 907 capital punishment appeals elevated to it for automatic review, 72% or 651 people in death row were saved from lethal injection after their wrongful conviction. The cases were from an 11-year period since the death penalty was restored in 1993 through 2004.

Presidential spokesman Salvador S. Panelo did not immediately reply when sought for comment.

The Philippines became the first Asian country to abolish the death penalty for all crimes, but it was reintroduced in late 1993 for 46 different offenses, according to Amnesty International.

Executions resumed in 1999 after 23 years, according to the London-based group focused on human rights. Former President Joseph E. Estrada in 2000 announced a halt on executions, which Ms. Arroyo his successor continued.

The Philippines under Ms. Arroyo again suspended capital punishment in 2006 through a law. Before that, she commuted the death sentences of 1,230 inmates to life imprisonment, which Amnesty International said was the “largest ever commutation of death sentences.”