CBCP Official Warns Against Return of Death Penalty

MANILA, Jan. 19, 2011— An official in the Catholic Church’s prison ministry is opposing the call for the reimposition of death penalty, as he warned that it may aggravate the problem of injustice in the country.

Rodolfo Diamante, executive secretary of the CBCP’s Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, stressed that the country’s dysfunctional justice system may lead to the conviction of the wrong person.

“With the kind of justice system we have, only the poor people will be penalized,” Diamante said.

The CBCP official said even the advocates of death penalty admitted that the country has an imperfect criminal justice system “so I don’t understand why they want it back.”

“With the kind of justice system that we have they will just arrest any ‘Tom, Dick and Harry’ to be able to say that they have something… or those that will be arrested are only the poor people,” he said.

“That is happening in the system and they (death penalty advocates) themselves said that.”

Diamante called on the authorities to instead look into a deeper solution to the problem of heinous crimes instead of looking for an immediate one.

“It’s about time that they look at the problem of enforcing the law instead of looking at death penalty… Those pushing this want a quick fix solution (to the problem),” said Diamante.

It would be better, he said, if the authorities would focus on strengthening the three stages crime prevention.

“Enforcing the law, the certainty of arrest and then you prosecute. As long as these are not strengthened, we will always have people being able to run away with the crime that they have committed,” he said.

Amid a recent spate of heinous crimes, some groups and even senators are calling for the revival of the capital punishment.

Volunteer against Crime and Corruption (VACC) founding chairman Dante Jimenez said the current situation warrants the imposition of death penalty.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri believes that the death penalty could deter the commission of terrible crimes in the country.

Zubiri, last August, filed a bill at the Senate that seeks to reimpose the capital punishment for persons found to be guilty of heinous crimes.

It was back in June 2006 when the death penalty was abolished by then president Gloria Arroyo just days before her trip to Vatican for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. (CBCPNews)