What we need is healing justice, anti-death penalty group tells Duterte

Anti-death penalty advocates have renewed their appeal to President Duterte not to restore the death penalty, maintaining that what is needed is restorative justice.

The Coalition Against Death Penalty urged the President to instead “enact laws that would heal the effect of crimes.”

In a statement, the group said the government should pursue incarceration as rehabilitation for prisoners and restitution for the victims.

“We should find another way of defending society that will obviate the need for the death penalty, which only brings out the worst in us all,” it said.

The CADP held a Mass at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines building in Intramuros, Manila, on Monday on the occasion of World Day Against Death Penalty.

Rudy Diamante, executive secretary of CBCP’s Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, said death will never be the answer to the problem of criminality.

“If they would really like change to come, let it not be on the basis of the final solution which is demonic in character. The final solution will never be a solution,” he said during
the Mass.

“We should stop. Enough is enough. Three thousand… let us not wait for three million, six million, before we regret it,” Diamante said.