DEATH PENALTY

By
Jiezel A. Maglalang

Death is also a powerful word. We all know that life is a gift and life is important. What if,
President Duterte implements Death Penalty on atrocious crimes? Crimes such as rape, drugs,
and murder? Some people may object, some may agree to it. Monday, March 6, 2017, Pres.
Duterte signed Executive Order No. 15. It designates the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency
as the chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs. As this law was taken
into action, majority of our citizens were “thankful” for the death of our fellow Filipinos who are
involved in illegal drugs. On the same year, a hoax about death penalty against rape cases
were floating around the social media and the news. Opinions and reviews were made. Siting
an example of Patrick Kennedy who raped his 8-year-old step-daughter. The case was heard at
Louisiana Supreme Court. The court sentenced death to the suspect, but a lot of interrogations
were acknowledged, one is the U.S. Supreme Court which noted that, “Rape as a crime is
second only to homicide in the hard that it causes.” Louisiana Court’s decision was invalidated
due to law biases. Death Penalty may cause dysfunction for other states to also seek for non-
murder.
What we want to point out here is, we are hoping for our government to implement death
penalty against these crimes. Being a feminist, death penalty against rape may also be
favorable. Not only to avoid further crimes to our female citizens, but to also raise awareness
and secure the safety of our environment. I may have forgot to mention that according to
Philippine National Police Women’s Desk, a woman or child is raped every 62 minutes. Imagine
the damage, hard and trauma it causes to the victims. Sometimes, after being raped, they are
murdered and battered brutally.
Injustice will not be the home the victims will build one day. Let us fight for their right.
Our right, to live peacefully and safely.