Etta hits ‘misplaced humor’ in move to revive death penalty

FORMER Commission on Human Rights (CHR) chair Loretta Ann Rosales has expressed alarm not only over the spate of killings in the country but also at the manner in which the proposed reimposition of the death penalty was treated with “misplaced humor” and cynicism in the Senate.

In an urgent and open letter to Senator Leila de Lima on Tuesday, Rosales first pointed to the “alarming and rapid developments” on the government’s war on illegal drugs.

“While we applaud this apparent collective effort to overhaul a corrupted bureaucracy, I am one with the people in expressing alarm that the war on drugs is brutally taking its tragic toll on the hundreds upon hundreds of people nationwide who live at the fringes of society, summarily executed without regard to their basic right to life and security as human beings and with total disregard to due process and the rule of law,” she said in the letter.

“My letter to you has been hastened by a disturbing session of the Senate yesterday (Monday) where deliberations on the restoration of the death penalty were treated with misplaced humor and cynicism by some on the plight of convicts sentenced to death, derived perhaps from apparent apathy to the import of international standards and norms on human rights, humanitarian and criminal law,” Rosales added.

The former CHR chief was apparently referring to Senator Manny Pacquiao’s remark during Monday’s session that death penalty by hanging could be done by just kicking the chair.

Pacquiao, who is pushing for the restoration of the capital punishment on drug-related cases, said he prefers that death should be carried out either by hanging or firing squad.

Asked why, the neophyte senator said: “Sisipain lang po yung upuan.” He later apologized for his comment.

READ:Manny explains death by hanging: ‘Sisipain lang po yung upuan’

READ: Pacquiao apologizes for ‘sisipain’ remark

Rosales, in the letter, also warned that the restoration of the death penalty would be a gross breach of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which she said had been signed recently by the executive.

She also noted that it has become a daily practice now that “lives are being snuffed out among nameless, faceless citizens who have no access to protection for their lives.” And this is being done, she said, with impunity by trigger-happy law enforcers and unidentified hoodlums on motorbikes.

“More than anything else, today’s practice legitimizes impunity and the road towards a total breakdown of law and order,” said Rosales.

She attached to the letter an initial study on the number of drug suspects allegedly killed in the government’s war against drugs, which she said has now reached to 889 based on latest reports.

“We hope the apathetic and cynical will pause and reflect on this tragedy among the poor,” Rosales said./rga