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Do the Filipinos feel safe in their own country? Are they trouble-free to walk outside

during day and nighttime? Crime is everywhere. It is without a doubt already a part of daily life.

Ordinary, educated, well-known, even politicians and public leaders commit illegal deeds. Does

it mean that the society has been experiencing darkness today? Maybe yes, for some reasons like

the continuous increase of crime rate in both urban and rural areas. With this current situation,

does the Philippine judiciary effectively give punishment to the people who committed crime?

Or have they already diminished the real essence of justice after providing a warm treatment to a

suspect rather to the victim?

Before the Philippines also experience criminality, it is indeed a part of reality that cannot

be eliminated but can be lessen through a strict jurisdiction. It has been years since the death

penalty was abolished in the country. From 1848 to 1987 it was used as a response to the rising

immorality; thus, others said it only curtails the freedom and rights of humans. However, crime

rate that time decreased because many feared death. This only shows that punishment disciplined

all Filipinos. At the term of former President Fidel Ramos, death penalty was re-imposed for

those who were proven guilty to heinous crimes. Still both sides were given a chance to be heard

by the court and fairly got a judgment based on the evidences and statements presented.

The study firmly stands and believes that the Philippines must bring back the capital

punishment also known as the death penalty. This study aims to introduce the importance of

having an equal chastisement to every evil deed done. A life sentence to those who fight against

the law, overpass their limitations and freewill. Death penalty is deterrence, retribution and the

right to live and save lives.

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 Deterrence is one of the primary objects of the Criminal Law. Its primary goal is to

discourage members of society from committing criminal acts out of fear of punishment. The

most powerful deterrent would be a criminal justice system that is guaranteed with certainty that

all individuals who broke the law would be apprehended, convicted, and punished, and would

receive no personal benefit from their wrongdoing.

Society has always used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful

action. Since society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest

punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. If murderers are sentenced to

death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their

own life. It is also more effective than sending an individual to prison. Imprisonment is good for

punishing criminals and keeping them off the street, but prison sentences are unlikely to deter

future crime. It also have opposite effects like inmates learning more effective crime strategies

from each other, and time spent in prison may desensitize many to the threat of future

imprisonment. Imprisonment is accumulatively higher given the expenses for food, health care

and other costs of sustaining the lives of incarcerated individuals serving life.

Death Penalty is retribution. Professor of Government and Philosophy at the University

of Texas, J. Budziszewski, PhD said, "Society is justly ordered when each person receives what

is due to him. Crime disturbs this just order, for the criminal takes from people their lives, peace,

liberties, and worldly goods in order to give him undeserved benefits. Deserved punishment

protects society morally by restoring this just order, making the wrongdoer pay a price

equivalent to the harm he has done. This is retribution, not to be confused with revenge, which is

guided by a different motive. Retribution is the primary purpose of just punishment.” During his

first press conference after the elections, President Duterte said he wanted to restore death

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penalty by hanging for convicts involved in illegal drugs, gun-for-hire syndicates, and those who

commit “heinous crimes” like rapists, robbers or car thieves who kill their victims. In a speech

this year, June 22nd, he said that penalty was a form of retribution apart from a way of deterring

crime: “To discourage people from committing crime because there is death penalty. To me,

death penalty is retribution. You’re going to pay for whatever you did in this life.” Duterte said

while critics of capital punishment view it as “inhuman,” criminals under the influence of drugs

have been reduced to a bestial state: “They say that death penalty is inhuman. But what is so

human about killing an 18-year-old child or raping her? Drugs have reduced human killing into

bestial state,” he added.  Is it not agreeable that a wrong deed must be equivalent to a

punishment? Aren’t children learning by being corrected and disciplined by their parents through

corresponding punishments like spanking and grounding them? Thus, they learn to never repeat

the mistakes that they have done and they are being motivated and trained to do the right things

to live a better life. To achieve peace and order among the citizens of the country, there must be

retribution equal to every heinous crime committed.

The death penalty is necessary to protect lives, save lives and give the people their right

to live. It is right of an individual to live peacefully and be free from harm. Unfortunately, crimes

like murder, rape and assault are committed by perpetrators who have no regard for life and

property of others. It is but fair that they are brought to justice and suffer the fate they deserve.

Some criminals simply cannot be allowed to keep living because every moment they’re alive is

another minute that they’re threat to the community. For these criminals who have no hope for

redemption anymore, the only remaining option is to remove them from existence.

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Every single year 9,000 innocents are murdered by released or violent criminal with known

records. Over 400,000 innocents have been murdered by released criminals who never should

have been freed.

The death penalty has been effective in keeping Singapore one of the safest places in the

world to work in and live in, where residents can go anywhere freely without fear that anytime

they can be murdered.

In the last few decades, the number of death sentences in Japan increased; nevertheless,

the number of murders has dropped. It shows that forfeiting the lives of some saves the lives of

many.

On the other side, some said that death penalty is not a deterrent because most people

who commit murder either do not expect to be caught or do not carefully weigh the differences

between a possible execution and life in prison before they act. Frequently, murders are

committed in moments of passion or anger, or by criminals who are substance abusers and acted

impulsively.

Retribution is another word for revenge. The emotional impulse for revenge is not a

sufficient justification for invoking a system of capital punishment, with all its accompanying

problems and risks. Our laws and criminal justice system should lead us to higher principles that

demonstrate a complete respect for life, even the life of a murderer. Encouraging our basest

motives of revenge, which ends in another killing, extends the chain of violence. Allowing

executions sanctions killing as a form of 'pay-back.' The notion of an eye for an eye, or a life for

a life, is a simplistic one which our society has never endorsed. We do not allow torturing the

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torturer, or raping the rapist. Taking the life of a murderer is a similarly disproportionate

punishment.

“The inviolable and God-given right to life also belongs to the criminal,”—Pope Francis,

it simply means that even criminals have the right to live.

“Right to live,” a human right that everyone deserves not only because they are good;

human rights are rights, not privileges.

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