ROSE ANN ARIOLA

12 - MAGNESIUM

State represented: Republic of the Philippines

Topic: Implementation of Death Penalty

Philippines is one of the countries in the southeast Asia known to be one with
high criminality rate. Death penalty was once instated in the Philippines through Republic
Act No. 7659 to implement peace and order in the society. It is an act of capital
punishment wherein criminals that are proven to be guilty in committing crimes and
offences are sentenced to death. Death penalty can be traced back on the Spanish
colonization in the Philippines where rebellious Filipinos are tortured and are killed by
Spaniards and it was retained until the American colonization era.
During the establishment of death penalty in the regime of Ferdinand Marcos,
crime rates are in the lowest but when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo abolished death penalty
in June 2006 by signing Republic Act No. 9346, known as an Act of Prohibiting the
Imposition of the Death Penalty in the Philippines, the criminal rate in the Philippines in
2010 increased 9.5% or 9,894 cases (ABS-CBN, 2016).
Philippine penal code should be of Hammurabi's Code, "an eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth." A criminal who takes away one's life should pay for the offense with
his own life. Religious sectors may oppose this position because they value life and may
suggest that imprisonment and rehabilitation is enough for criminals to pay their debts.
But the fact that the Philippines does not have enough facilities is cannot be taken away.
Also, a criminal that has undergone rehabilitation and imprisonment may still commit
crime base on the structural strain that tension and strains between socially approved
goals and an individual's ability to meet them will lead to deviance and crime.
Death penalty deters people from committing crimes. In the original revised penal
code, the definition of crimes and penalty is in the essence of retribution. In a positivist
theory, a sexual offender for example can be nurtured into goodness provided a cost of
prison for two to three years. After imprisonment, the criminal will be released and be
free again and his subcultural view will be the same again, to rape and to kidnap.
According to Almer Cuerda (2018), “when someone takes a life, the balance of justice is
disturbed. Unless that balance is restored, society succumbs to a rule of violence. Only
the taking of the murderer’s life restores the balance and allows society to show
convincingly that murder is an intolerable crime which will be punishment in kind.
Retribution has its basis in religious values, which have historically maintained that it is
proper to take an ‘’eye for an eye’’ and a life. Offenders deserve the worst punishment
under our system of law, and that is the death penalty.” A person who commits unlawful
action should be sentenced to death so that others who are thinking to commit crime
will think twice or else they will lose their own life.
Life is a gift but if killing one's life will save many people, then, it is better to
sacrifice one man's life than the whole nation to suffer. It should be therefore proposing
for congress to act on pending legislation to impose death penalty on the continuous
crime in the Philippines.
ROSE ANN ARIOLA
12 MAGNESIUM

My Back Braking Story

As a working student, I used to be very busy, no time for my family, for my friends
and for the Lord. Whenever we have family gathering, I rather choose to go to work than
to join them. There is always this scenario that as I arrive home at night, they are all
asleep but as I wake up, they are all about to leave. Not having enough sleep, not eating
right and stress from work triggered my anemia. I was hospitalized. I thought that ate
Pong, my cousin, will only be the one to accompany me but I was wrong. My mother and
my siblings went to the hospital and took good care of me. We talked all night long about
our family. I have never felt that gladness before.
At first, I thought that staying in the hospital will cause me no good but I realized
that being in a tough situation is sometimes good especially when it makes your family
strong and bond. I have realized that having time with your love ones is such an
important part of life. If you do not have a lot of precious time with them, then, you
probably did not live your life to the fullest.