‘Hanging judge’ Pamaran wants death penalty restored

MANILA, Philippines — He walks slowly and is a bit hard of hearing, and yet war veteran and retired magistrate Manuel Pamaran, 94, has not missed a National Heroes’ Day ceremony in the past 30 years.

Despite his advanced age, the retired Sandiganbayan associate justice still makes it his duty to attend the wreath-laying rites for the special holiday which honors the country’s heroes.

“Because we’re one of the national heroes,” he said when asked why he has been steadfast in attending the yearly celebration without fail.

Pamaran was one of several aging war veterans who attended this year’s flag-raising and wreath-laying ceremony at Libingan ng mga Bayani in Fort Bonifacio on Monday morning.

‘It’s demand of the times’

As a Manila judge, Pamaran earned the moniker “the hanging judge” for sentencing to death several high-profile crime personalities such as Juanito Alde alias “Waway” and Evelyn Duave alias “Baby China” in the 1970s. He was known to have sentenced 60 people to death.

Pamaran believes that restoring the death penalty is the “demand of the times.”

“With the peace and order that we are having now, the return of the death penalty is highly desirable. It is the demand of the times … Death by hanging,” he told reporters.

The elderly veteran cited the “disruption of the peace and order” as his reason for wanting the death penalty reimposed anew instead of life imprisonment.

He said he was against commuting death sentences to life imprisonment, and that he hoped that “there will be a law that will promulgate the prevention of the commutation of the death penalty by the President.”

“I still believe that the death penalty should remain in our statute, otherwise it will worsen the peace and order of the community,” Pamaran added.

In World War II veteran, he fought under the Hunters ROTC guerilla unit.