Pinoys in peril abroad if death penalty is OKd

Buhay partylist Representative Lito Atienza. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

More Filipinos on death row abroad face a greater threat of being executed if the Philippines restores capital punishment, minority lawmakers and Catholic bishops said on Thursday after a Filipino maid was hanged in Kuwait.

“It saddens us to say that once Congress reinstates death sentences here, and once President Rodrigo Duterte makes good his threat to execute five to six malefactors every day, there’s a high likelihood we would have more Jakatia Pawas,”  Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza said.

Jakatia Pawa, a mother of two, was executed on Wednesday for the murder of her Kuwaiti employer’s 22-year-old daughter 10 years ago. She maintained her innocence to the end.

Atienza said the President’s plan to reimpose the death penalty would “emasculate” the government’s efforts to save the lives of overseas Filipino workers sentenced to death in other countries.

“Once Congress reinstates the cruel and inhuman punishment, it would be highly problematic for us to plead with other governments for compassion, if we ourselves are killing our own citizens here,” Atienza said in a statement.

Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas expressed sadness over Pawa’s fate and “abhorrence at the death penalty.”

“The sadness that we feel at Jakatia’s death should make us all advocates against the death penalty,” Villegas said.

Bishop Ruperto Santos of Balanga, Bataan, said the death of Pawa, a Muslim, affected all Filipinos.

“Whatever region or religion, she is a Filipina. She is one of us,” said Santos, chair  of the CBCP’s Episcopal Commission for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People.—DJ YAP, JULIE M. AURELIO/rga