Crime is everywhere.

Crimes such as treason, qualified piracy, parricide, murder, rape, drug

related crimes and plunder have become a part of our daily lives. Yes, we are all witnesses on
how these killings filled the banner stories of our daily news. Does this mean we let them be the
darkness of our society? No, definitely not. There has been a lot of talk from many individuals
about wiping out crimes, but many times efforts are forfeited. The rise of alarming and heart-
wrenching crimes in the Philippines, one cannot just close eyes on this issue, something needs to
be done. That’s why death penalty or capital punishment should be impose in the Philippines
because it serves as a deterrent, limit prison overpopulation issues and eliminates the possibility
of an escape and future victims.

Death penalty deters crime because capital punishment creates an irreversible deterrent that the
murderer will never get the chance to take a life again. It is a form of incapacitation that helps to
protect society by preventing future crime in this manner. “Capital punishment is likely to deter
more than other punishments because people fear death more than anything else,” said Ernest
van den Haag, Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University. “They fear most death
deliberately inflicted by law and scheduled by the courts. Whatever people fear most is likely to
deter the most threat disappears – which means there will be no future victims either.

Philippines grapples with prison overcrowding due to lack of jail facilities that’s why capital
punishment is the best solution to the problem of overcrowded jails because all “lifers” would be
sent to death row and executed.  These “lifers” would no longer require a cell or take up space in
an already crowded jail. What is the essence of putting felons in jail if they will only die because
of severe skin disease in fact around three to four inmates die every month at the New Bilibid
Prison (NBP) that they spend almost hundred thousand in eradicating this kind of issue. Capital
punishment is also the best way to keep tax payers content.  The death penalty satisfies tax
payers because it is a very cost efficient way to curb the number of inmates sentenced to life
without parole.  Under the death penalty, these felons would be executed at a price cheaper than
supporting them in jail for life.
It eliminates the possibility of an escape and future victims because when there is a life in prison
sentence, then an individual has nothing to lose with their effort to escape. What can the criminal
justice system do to that person except add more time to their life sentence? By using capital
punishment, this threat disappears – which means there will be no future victims either.

The issue on death penalty has raised more debates today in the country since President-elect
Duterte opened the doors on its re-imposition during his three month campaign because it revives
people’s fear of the consequences of law violation. How can the mother of a poor three year old,
raped and murdered, sleep soundly at night and move on? How can a hopeless father who drives
the jeepney to send his only daughter to a good school look at life the same way again after she
was raped and parts of her body were decapitated? “We have a society now where obedience to
the law is really a choice, an option only” –Duterte.