Executions would bring more violence–Atienza

Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

A PRO-LIFE congressman on Sunday cautioned the incoming administration of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and the next Congress against the “mad rush” to reinstate the death penalty, arguing that it would not help curb crime.

Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza, a former Manila mayor, said he fully supported the next president’s strong drive against criminality but would advise him against reviving capital punishment as a deterrent for criminals.

“We want our new president to succeed in the war on crime. He deserves everybody’s help in rooting out corruption in law enforcement, the prosecution service, the judiciary and corrections,” Atienza said in a statement.

But reviving the death penalty would not accomplish this, he said.

“That killing convicts will somehow lessen crime is a false premise. On the contrary, executions will only engender a culture of violence that will in turn breed even more brutal crimes,” he warned.

“We maintain that the certainty of the swift capture and punishment of felons is our best deterrence to crime,” he added.

Last week, Duterte met with House leaders from various political parties to convey his desire for a new law restoring the death penalty. He told them he preferred execution by hanging for drug offenses and other grave crimes.

Atienza, however, said most of the civilized world has recognized that the maximum sentence of life imprisonment was more than adequate to serve the ends of justice, and to keep modern societies safe from hardened criminals.

“In the years ahead, we envision a highly progressive and humane republic firmly grounded in a culture of life—on respect for the sanctity of human life. We are not dreaming of a backward and callous nation anchored on a medieval culture of death,” he said.

Some 102 countries have eliminated the death penalty from their laws, while another 38 countries that still carry the punishment have not carried out any executions in the last 10 years, Atienza said.

“Our peace and order campaign has long been beset by corruption, if not by ineptitude. We have to address this problem to restore public confidence in our criminal justice system. Reviving the death penalty is not the solution,” he said.

The death penalty was abolished under the 1987 Constitution with the caveat that it may be reimposed, with Congress approval, for heinous crimes.