Personal Opinion/Comment

Re: Death Penalty as Capital Punishment and its Abolition

The imposition of penalties is one of the major duties of the state as parens patriae. The essence
of democracy entails not just freedom and also a parallel responsibility of every citizen to respect the
rights of other. The co-existence of the two is indispensable in maintaining the balance in a democratic
country. Thus, penalties for its violation is imposed to ensure order.

The main purpose of the state in imposing penalties to offenders could either be to prevent,
defend, reform, set an example, or to retribute. However, the power of the state to institute penalties
to the offenders should not be made absolute (in my opinion). Every people have indispensable rights
that cannot be violated no matter how grave their felony, as the case may be. Example of this is the right
to life.

Article 25 of the Revised Penal Code, introduces penalty as a Capital Punishment. However,
pursuant to Republic Act No. 9346, this provision has been amendment. Thus, Death Penalty was
abolished. In my opinion, imposition of death penalty is a violation to the constitutional guarantee that
the right to life of every citizen is inviolable. Moreso, the guarantee of the right to life is not only a
domestic policy but also an international policy. Philippines being a member of united nations is also
bound by it rules and declaration. Thus, it has the force and effect of a law in the Philippines. In UN’s
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to life is also guaranteed.

On the other side of this point of view, it is sad, but statistical data is uncovering that heinous
crimes has significantly grown with the abolition of death penalty in 2006. This is because the existence
of the death penalty alone, as one of the penalties, somehow institutes fear in the mind of many people
to commit crimes. Goes without saying, that its abolition therefore decreases the fear of many people to
commit crimes. Because of this some people believes that there are some cases where the state has to
play the role of the devil’s advocate in order to maintain peace and order.

Thus, the question of whether or not death penalty should be imposed or not, remains a debate
up until now. If I am to be asked, I would vote for reimposition of death penalty. The only thing is that, I
am not in a position to assert it reimposition because I don’t have the legal personality to do so.