This House Rejects Death Penalty in the Philippines

I, as a member of the affirmative side, believes that death penalty should be rejected
as a punishment for crime because it is unnecessary, anti-poor, and is fallible given the
current situation of our justice system.

As of 2017, 142 countries abolished death penalty in law or practice according to the
Amnesty International. One reason for this is because it is unnecessary. The crime rates in the
country are decreasing even without death penalty. According to PSA, PNP, there has been a
decrease in the happenings of “index crimes” or the crimes that are commonly committed and
have “socioeconomic significance” like murder and rape from years 1978 to 2008 even
without death penalty. These proves that the “rise of crime rates” is actually a myth than a
fact, since index crimes have been falling in the early ‘90s. Even in the years without the
death penalty, the crime rate had already fallen. When Leo Echegaray and six others were
punished by death penalty through lethal injection in 1999, there was no change in the index
crime rate. It didn’t drop. In fact, it even rose by 8.8% from 1999 to 2002 according to
Rappler. Meaning, death penalty if not really necessary to see a drop in crime rates.

This also shows that death penalty is not proven to deter crimes. Studies abroad
cannot present strong evidences that death penalty can provide deterrence better than a prison
term. In fact, evidence reveals the opposite. According to Rappler, the death penalty in US
cannot explain the great decline in homicide rates observed in the ‘90s. More recent studies
also unveil that, instead of laying harsher punishments, a higher assurance of being caught
may be more effective in deterring crimes.

Another reason to reject death penalty is because it is largely anti-poor. The previous
death penalty in the Philippines appeared to be disproportionate on the poor where poor
inmates were most likely to receive this punishment that rich inmates. According to the 2004
Free Legal Assistance Group Survey on death row inmates, 79% did not reach college, and
63% were previously employed in blue-collar jobs. This reveals that two-thirds of the death
row inmates earned a monthly wage on or below the minimum. Meanwhile, 1% or less of the
death row inmates had a monthly wage more than P50, 000. The poor is deprive from having
the resources to defend themselves in court.
 Finally, death penalty is fallible. Previous death sentences were proven to be error-
prone. This is where miscarriage of justice happens. The People of the Philippines case vs.
Mateo case in 2004, the Supreme Court admitted that a majority of trial courts had
wrongfully charged the death sentence during the time that it was being practiced from 1993
to 2004. Bringing back death penalty even with this high rate of judicial errors will only place
more innocent people on death row.

In conclusion, death penalty can be abused on many grounds. Morally,

philosophically, or legally. Based on the facts and evidences given, death penalty has been a
largely unnecessary and incapable of reducing crime.