LUCENA CITY – A multisectoral group from Quezon province joined the chorus of protest against the passage of the controversial death penalty bill in Congress on Tuesday.
“But the battle is not yet over. There’s still the Senate,” Jay Lim, spokesman of Silent No More-Quezon chapter (SNM-Quezon) said in an interview on Wednesday.
He said SNM-Quezon will coordinate with religious and other local anti-death penalty groups to conduct a house-to-house campaign to compel the senators to reject death penalty. SNM-Quezon is composed of professionals, teachers, government and private employees, students and members of non-government organizations based in Quezon province.
“We will distribute leaflets, flaglets and tarpaulins to the grassroots to enlighten the common tao (people) that the reimposition of the death penalty is not the right solution to address the rising criminalities,” Lim said.
Lim said the proposed capital punishment is “anti-poor” and “nightmare to the Filipino people.”
“Only the lives of those who are poor will be offered before the savage altar to be created by Congress and not those who are rich and who walks along the corridors of power,” he said.
Lim said the solution to the rising criminalities in the country is the sincere and effective implementation of the laws and the cleansing of the ranks of the state enforcers.
“But the most important step is to eradicate poverty in this country though honest governance by the country’s leaders. Poverty is the root of most criminal activities around us,” Lim said.