RETURN OF DEATH PENALTY NOT SOLUTION
TO EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said that a proposal in Congress to revive the death penalty to address the alarming incidence of political killings and other heinous crimes should be debated openly and publicly.

We have just passed the law abolishing the death penalty and although I personally do not see any connection, let me say that in a democracy, other views must be allowed to surface and discussed publicly and openly, so that all sides of the issue are considered, he said.

Pimentel maintained that the solution to the upsurge of crimes is not by executing convicted criminals but by upgrading the efficiency of law enforcement agencies and the courts in solving crime cases and in punishing the offenders.

In many European countries where there is no death penalty, he said criminality remains low because of the swiftness and decisiveness by which murderers, kidnappers and other crime perpetrators are tracked down and thrown into jail by the police and meted out penalized by the courts.

One of the proponents of the return of the death penalty is Surigao del Sur Rep. Robert Ace Barbers who saw it as a solution to put an end to the rampant extra-judicial killings.

Pimentel stressed that the slayings of political activists can be solved and their occurrence prevented if the government has the political will to jail, prosecute and punish the culprits, particularly soldiers and policemen, who seem to enjoy the projection of the authorities.

As long as the government is perceived to be soft in going after the death squads involved in the extra-judicial killings despite credible evidence pointing to their culpability, Pimentel said any kind of harsh punishment under the countrys laws will be ineffective as a deterrent.