LUCERO, JANICA M.

SECTION 6 W/S 7:30 AM – 9:00 AM OCTOBER 09, 2019

The idea of reinstating the death penalty in the Philippines has become an issue as President
Duterte mentioned it during the State of the Nation Address this year. Before electing him as a
president on 2016, he promised that he will end crimes, especially drugs within 6 months.
However, he failed to do so which pushed him on considering death penalty. The reinstatement or
implementation of death penalty in the Philippines is not a way to deter crimes, whether it is
murder, rape, corruption or drug addiction. Also, it is most likely that only poor people or those
who cannot afford to protect themselves are the only one who can be affected of death penalty.

According to Adeeba Kamarulzaman, “capital punishment does not deter people from
using or trafficking drugs. There is an enormous amount of evidence in support of this. In countries
that have aggressively pursued the death penalty in recent decades, the drug market continues to
flourish. Having death penalty in a country does not really deter drug trafficking nor drug users.”
(page 6). According to the 2013 annual report of Indonesia's National Narcotics Agency (BNN),
there were 260 drug traffickers arrested in 2013, an increase from 157 people in 2011 and 202
people in 2012. Although Indonesia has implemented death penalty, the number of drug-crimes
related still increased. Also, there is no evidence to support that death penalty can prevent and stop
drugs. People only think that it is the best solution to discourage criminals to do heinous crimes,
because losing our lives is what frightens humans the most. However, that still does not prove that
death penalty can deterrent or stop drugs. It only eliminates the number of lives, including the lives
of innocent people, but not the crimes or the drugs itself. Although death penalty is still not
reinstated in the country, the number of lives that were killed are already numerous since President
Duterte has stated that policemen are allowed killing the person getting arrested if he was resisting.
However, despite of the extrajudicial killings and efforts of government and policemen in all drug-
related crimes, President Duterte admitted on last March that instead of a better result, the illegal
drug trade in the Philippines became worse.

Aside from the drug-related crimes, when it comes to murder, rape and corruption, it is
indeed that death penalty is not for everyone. People who have the power, and money always
receive another kind of law and rules. Also, they can always get away from the consequences of
their crimes with their power and money. The most concrete example would be Paolo Duterte, the
son of the president himself. According to Brian Saady, Paolo became the subject of an
investigation that involves a $161 million ship of methamphetamine from China and was also

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accused of protecting the shipment, but the president denied the involvement of his son in drug
trade.

Clinton Duffy has mentioned that capital punishment is “a privilege of the poor”, because
only those who cannot afford or provide a large amount of money can get the punishment. On the
thousands of people that were killed because of the war on drugs in the country, innocent lives
were also taken. Kian Delos Santos, Carlos Arnaiz, and Reynaldo De Guzman are few of those
people who became victims of the war on drugs. Delos Santos was dragged from his home in
Caloocan by the police officers. The story of the policemen was different from the witness which
is why the death of Delos Santos was intriguing. He was not resisting, but rather pleading to the
policemen to spare his life, but they did not even bother to hesitate to kill an innocent kid. If you
are poor, regardless of lack of evidence, you can be easily accused and killed, but if you are
powerful and rich, even the evidences can be clearly seen, you can still get out of the situation.

To sum up, reinstatement of death penalty is not the best choice or solution to deter crimes
such as drug trafficking and corruption in the country. If the number of killings in our country is
already numerous even without the reinstatement of death penalty, what can more happen if capital
punishment happens again? Innocent lives are already taken because of the extrajudicial killing
and war on drugs which are obviously only apply to people who have not enough money and
power. Instead of decreasing the number of crimes in the country, the government itself will
contribute to the increase of the crimes if this will be reinstated again.

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References:

Girelli, Giada (2009) The death penalty for Drug Offenses: Global Review 2018. Page 6 Retrieved
on October 7, 2019 from
https://www.hri.global/files/2019/02/22/HRI_DeathPenaltyReport_2019.pdf

Gunawan, Ricky (2014) Death Penalty does not deter drug traffickers. Retrieved on October 7,
2019 from https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/12/10/death-penalty-does-not-deter-drug-
traffickers.html

Regalado, Edith (2019) Duterte: Philippines drug situation has worsened. Retrieved on October 7,
2019 from https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/03/27/1904945/duterte-philippines-drug-
situation-has-worsened

American Civil Liberties Union (2019) Retrieved on October 7, 2019 from

https://www.aclu.org/other/death-penalty-questions-and-
answers?fbclid=IwAR1cByOpxMYtpmJPcJpXUz1VYTwF24uZBjl4q47YAV9VsHajBkfXOQo
cUFs

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