Palace: No ongoing talks on reimposition of death penalty

This October 10, 2014 shows the bed with thick straps that used to hold down a death row prisoner inside the Lethal Injection Chamber of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City. (INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON)

MANILA, Philippines —  Malacañang on Wednesday said there are no talks on bringing back the death penalty in the Philippines, amid the corruption scandal hounding the government.

At a briefing, Palace press officer Undersecretary Claire Castro was asked whether President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is considering reviewing the possible return of the death penalty, given the rampant corruption issues.

READ: Palace: Marcos open to expanding powers of ICI amid flood control probe

“As of now, the President has not mentioned anything yet. But of course, in studying whether the suspension or lifting of the suspension of the death penalty will be implemented again, this needs to be carefully studied because it’s not something that can just be decided or declared suddenly that the death penalty should already be in place,” she said partly in Filipino.

Castro said that the public cannot be swayed and should be freed from the influence of past incidents where people admitted they were accustomed to creating intrigues and planting evidence.

“What if an innocent person becomes a victim of intrigue and is planted with evidence? The death penalty could be imposed. That would be very unfortunate for someone who is truly innocent. So, the reimposition of the death penalty must be studied very carefully,” she added.

On Sept. 21, tens of thousands of people staged protests in various parts of Metro Manila—coinciding with the anniversary of the declaration of martial law under then-President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. in Sept. 1972.

The demonstrations focused on condemning the irregularities in flood-control projects and called for accountability for the personalities involved in the developing controversies. /gsg