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AFOS, JAN ALDRIN E Criminal Law - II

Reaction Paper: New Era University Law Week

During the celebration of the Law Week, I, along with my


classmates participated in the College of Law Debate Competition. The
first topic was about the re-imposition of the death penalty in the
Philippines. The bout was one of the most intense ones I have ever
experienced but luckily with the aid of our Almighty God, we managed
to convince the adjudicators that capital punishment should not be
re-imposed.

Article 2, Sec. 11 of our Organic Law provides that, “ The State


values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect
for human rights.” This specific provision is in accordance with the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which guarantees that every
human being has the inherent right to life. The framers of our
Constitution furthermore emphasized this in Article 3 Section 1 of our
Constitution which reads, “No person shall be deprived of Life, liberty,
or property without due process of law.”

Statistics provided by the Directorate for Investigation and


Detective Management of the PNP have shown that the volume of
crime began to fall significantly when the death penalty was
constitutionally abolished in 1987. This continued until 1997 even
after the death penalty had been reinstated in 1993. However, in
1999, the crime rate once again increased after six (6) death convicts
were executed. In the year 2000, the crime rate began to fall when a
moratorium on executions was officially declared. The following year,
when a de facto moratorium on executions came into existence, the
crime volume fell again.

A 2004 survey conducted by the Free Legal Assistance Group


(FLAG), they asked 1,121 death row inmates if they knew of the death
penalty prior to them committing their crimes. It was discovered that
majority of them, did in fact, know about the death penalty. So despite
the fact that the death penalty was in effect, it did not deter criminals
from committing crimes contrary to the claim of the advocates of lex
taliones that capital punishment is necessary to lower the crime rate.

Furthermore, in the case of People Vs. Mateo G.R. No. 147678-87,


July 7, 2004 the judicial error rate of Philippine Courts when it comes
to Death Penalty cases is a stagering 71.77 percent. To add to that,
according to a study conducted by none less than the Supreme Court
itself as documented by Mamamayang Tutol Sa Bitay-Movement for a
Restorative Justice (a group composed of some 150 human rights,
sectoral, political, and church groups,) 4 out of five death row inmates
have been wrongfully sentenced by various lower courts. Although the
AFOS, JAN ALDRIN E Criminal Law - II

Supreme Court corrected some of these decisions, still an alarmingly


high number of innocent people have been subjected to the mental
and emotional torture of going through the ordeal of being sentenced
to die for a crime which they did not commit.

Therefore in the end, we fought for the fact that the re-imposition
of death penalty is not necessary, not practical, and is not beneficial
to the Filipino society.

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