Senator Risa Hontiveros on Thursday expressed opposition to the government’s plan to lower the age of criminal liability and to revive death penalty, saying these will result in minors landing on death row.
Hontiveros in a press conference organized by Amnesty International-Philippines said that both death penalty and the age of criminal liability lowered from aged 15 to nine would just create a “deadly combination that would condemn Filipino children to a dark future in wherein they will become death row kids.”
She also voiced out serious concerns that the death penalty bill is contradicting to the government’s program on rehabilitation and reformation programs for convicted drug users and criminals.
“The broad scope of crimes punishable by death, including the mere possession of illegal drugs, is extremely bothering,” she said, asking the point of building a mega-drug rehabilitation center in Nueva Ecija if the government wants the illicit drug dependents killed.
The proposed bill on the death penalty is ready for plenary debates after the House of Representatives – Justice Committee approved the consolidated draft law on Wednesday.
The following crimes will be punishable by the proposed death penalty: treason; Piracy and Mutiny on the high seas or in Philippine water; qualified theft, qualified bribery; parricide; murder; infanticide; rape; kidnapping and serious illegal detention; robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons; destructive arson; plunder; possession of unlawful and dangerous drugs; and carnapping, among others.
Under the proposed measure, three methods may be used in executing death penalty: hanging, firing squad, or lethal injection.
Hontiveros added that no empirical proof shows that death penalty is an effective way to end crime.
She pointed out that death penalty is a cruel, inhumane and degrading way of punishment.
Hontiveros noted that the death penalty has a disproportionate impact on the poor and provides a little to no guarantee that innocent people would not be sentenced to death.
“Who could forget Flor Contemplacion’s execution and the ongoing case of Mary Jane Veloso on an alleged drug trafficking case? Even some of our national heroes were victims of the death penalty themselves – Dr. Jose Rizal and the Gomburza priests were executed by firing squad and garrote respectively only for fighting for freedom, equal rights, and democracy,” Hontiveros said.
It can be recalled that Flor Contemplacion, a Filipino domestic helper, was executed in Singapore for murder. Mary Jane Veloso, on the other hand, is a Filipino woman who was arrested and placed on death row for allegedly smuggling illegal drugs in Indonesia.
Hontiveros also drew attention to reports that the Justice Subcommittee on Correctional Reforms of the Lower House has already conducted hearings on the bills seeking to lower the age of criminal liability.
She added that the proposed law is against the country’s international treaty obligations and will only push children in conflict with the law to “a life of hard crime.”
Hontiveros stressed that placing children aged 9, who are not psychologically developed enough to understand the nature of offenses, in prison will just mold them into hardened criminals.
“It will only stigmatize them and trigger repeat offense. What they [children] need is to recover the sense of dignity and self-worth through education and rehabilitation programs under a fully-implemented Juvenile Justice Law,” she said.
