DEATH PENALTY

The move of the Department of Justice to call for the lifting of the
moratorium on death penalty particularly on those convicted for
illegal drugs is moot and academic. Unless of course the government,
with all its might, is able to reverse the situation wherein suspects
are being murdered by vigilantes.

Justice Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez was quoted as saying in a
national daily that since the country has capital punishment, it is
supposed to "impose it."

Ms. Gutierrez said the imposition of the death penalty may strengthen
the campaign of the government against illegal drugs.

We see the opinion of the good government official as off-tangent.
First, who will she throw to the death chamber when suspects are now
being killed before they get convicted? Second, there is no study that
will prove that the death penalty is a deterrent to commission of
crimes, although this is another issue.

Why are we saying that the death penalty will not serve its purpose?
In Davao City, particularly, vigilantes have shot to death people who
are still "suspects" of committing crimes including those whose
supposed crimes are, to borrow the police term, petty.

In the last two weeks in Davao City, deaths attributed to vigilantism
reached 18, although one of the targets by a quirk of fate, survived.

The vigilante phenomenon has not been limited to Davao City. Reports
in national dailies and news wires said that some vigilante groups
have also murdered suspects in Metro Manila and other parts of the
country. Well, the latest vigilante groups may have cloned this way of
silencing the criminals.

The wave of vigilante killing, or summary execution, started when a
group of motorcycle-riding men came out of nowhere and started
shooting people whom they already sentenced to die.

Perhaps the best way for Ms. Gutierrez is to call the attention of the
national government on how to prevent these killings from going out of
hand.

We just hope this government still values life. Ms. Guiterrez should
bat instead for the demolition of the lethal injection chamber.