Thee are many important basic ideas to be realized before the death penalty could truly work to the benefit of (a majority of) the poor and out political and economic system.
The version of the death penalty passed by the House of Representatives was done in haste, for reasons some of us know. The version is poorly crafted because its scope is limited only to cases related to illegal drugs, while major offenses like rape, plunder, and other heinous crimes were excluded.
If that is the only version of the bill, then we don’t need it at all. We have enough and better laws can address the crimes covered by the death penalty.
Also, criminals do not fear death – it is being caught that they are afraid of. Hardened criminals consider death a consequence of their actions and it is their “skill” in evading death that keeps them emboldened.
When death does come, they would just say, “Who cares? It was my choice.”
The poor, likewise, do not fear death. Living in the misery of an unjust world is what they abhor.
Will feudal oligarchs, big business elites, corporate powers, and most politicians reduce their greedy, corrupt, and brutal practices following the reinstatement of the death penalty?
Everybody knows they buy power. They buy the courts, the lawyers, the opinion makers, those with firearms, those with influence – they determine the leaders of the country.
With the death penalty a part of the justice system, it can easily be used to silence critics, stifle protest, and frame political rivals. The death penalty will be a license to kill.
In our situation, where economic, political, and cultural apparatus are under control of oligarchs and corporate interests, the death penalty will not be beneficial to a majority of the poor and exploited.
I am for the death penalty, but from a different perspective. Unless the present conditions of the death penalty are overhauled, it has no place in our system.
It is frustrating to see people like House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, whom President Rodrigo Duterte entrusted with the power to push through his agenda, are the ones veering away from that commitment.
Sadly, the current House version of the death penalty only reflects the kind of leaders that have been elected, classic “trapo” politicians.

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