On the 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty:

Poverty
On the occasion of the World Day Against the Death Penalty, UP Law Karapatan
ng Komunidad sa Loob ng Selda (KAKOSA) categorically and absolutely condemns
the death penalty as a discarded tool for justice antithetical to human dignity.
UP Law KAKOSA believes in the principle of restorative justice and the dignity of
persons deprived of liberty. The pursuit of justice does not end with the
punishment of an offense but should include the restoration of peace and order in
society through the rehabilitation of the person who committed the crime as well
as the inclusion of the victim in the restoration process. This endeavor should
include the recognition that people in prison are not deprived of their dignity by
virtue of their conviction. The death penalty violates all these fundamental
principles.
Capital punishment has no place in civilized society and should be consigned to
history. It is based on the archaic notion that retribution is equivalent to justice. It
has been repeatedly found that there is no evidence showing causation between the
imposition of capital punishment and a fall in the incidence of crime. Nor has it
been shown that it safeguards society’s most defenseless - the impoverished and
underprivileged. In reality, the death penalty does not serve the ends of justice but
only satisfies the hunger of people for vengeance.
The risk of the death penalty is, in fact, disproportionately carried by those living
in poverty. Economic inequality is inextricably linked to legal injustice. Poverty
brings about a lack of access to effective legal representation, resulting in the death
row largely comprising those economically and politically disadvantaged.
Given its inherent inequity, capital punishment and any efforts towards its revival
must be opposed. In his second State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo
Duterte urged Congress to bring back capital punishment. In the House of
Representatives, a measure to bring back the death penalty was approved on third
and final reading with 217 votes. Those who had the conscience to vote against it
were punished with removal from their leadership positions in the Lower House.
These moves to bring back the death penalty encourage retribution and revenge,
not restoration and justice. While we are encouraged by the fact that the death
penalty bill is not a priority in the Senate, we must continue to vigilantly resist any
attempt to once again make death penalty the law of the land.
The death penalty is nothing less than state-sanctioned murder. As a nation
committed to the dignity of the human being and the sanctity of life, the
Philippines should, in no uncertain terms, declare: Redemption is for everyone. No
to the death penalty!
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Cover photo from:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/files/2014/12/20141010lr_IMG_1035.jpg