Death Penalty: Approach to the Rising

Crime?

Everyone will die someday but the question is,

what or who can dictate whether you live or
die? No one has the right to take the life of a
person except for the One who gives life and
can take it away. We have the right to life as
stated in the human rights that also includes
freedom from torture, freedom from
discrimination and freedom from arbitrary
arrest, among others. Although some people do
not deserve to live because of their
unjustifiable acts, they still have the right to live
even if their acts are inhumane. Criminals are
still guided by laws and due processes to pay
for their crimes. And with the rising criminal
cases in our country, the debate is again on fire
if death penalty shall be reimposed. As we all
know our president Rodrigo Duterte openly
supports this type of punishment most
especially on his war on drugs. As for me, I do
not see this as a solution but an abuse of power
by the government.
As a Filipino citizen, I will never support capital
punishment for the sake of justice. Death
penalty should not be implemented in the
Philippines because the judicial system is faulty.
The judicial system in the Philippines is very
slow, the due process of a case is not effective
in the country because it takes too long to solve
whereas most cases last for years before being
processed. The delays prolong the criminal
cases, which end in them going nowhere and
not being solved. There are also too many
errors in the system, these errors being having
an inadequate lawyer represent the defendant,
incomplete or lack of evidence, and unreliable
witnesses. If capital punishment were in effect
in the country, majority of the cases would
result in wrongfully convicting innocent
people.Authority, money, influence, and fraud
could sway the judicial system in the
Philippines. Due to the rich and powerful men
influencing the decision of the case, it does not
even matter if the accused is truly guilty of the
crime or innocent because the end result will
be based on their choice. The case would then
be manipulated through forged evidence, false
witnesses, or forced confessions. The judge
would then have to incriminate the accused
man for his alleged crime. This leads innocent
people to die without having the chance of
parole and their freedom.
The death penalty should not even be imposed
in the country where the justice system is
currently imperfect and biased. While it is true
that the criminal cases take too long to be
solved, it is not because the criminal cases are
carefully being processed instead it is because
there too many criminal cases that they just
keep piling up without being resolved. This
shows the inability for the criminal justice
system to process criminal cases efficiently and
effectively. Even President Aquino pronounced
that no death penalty would be enforced until
the justice system is perfected. Furthermore,
majority of the defendants with death cases are
not even well represented in their trials,
making it unfair for them because there would
be a greater chance that they would be given
the death penalty if it were in effect. Even the
Supreme Court admitted it had its share of
miscarriages of justice when death penalty was
in effect, the data released showed that there
was a seventy-two percent wrong conviction
rate.Death penalty should not be implemented
in the Philippines because it is contrary to
catholic teachings. The Catholic Church is
against capital punishment. Even Pope Francis
himself appealed to all Catholics to help abolish
death penalty. The Catholic body is against
capital punishment because it does not believe
in taking away the human life. They are pro life
because it is not in their hands that the
offender must die but in God’s. Life
imprisonment rather than capital punishment is
found as a more sufficient solution to keep the
criminal alive while not endangering the
public’s safety.
Moreover, nobody deserves to be killed no
matter what he or she did. By having the death
penalty, it makes our laws just as guilty as the
person doing the crime. Why is it right to
murder someone just because you’re under the
jurisdiction of the law? Leaving someone locked
up in a cell all his or her life is a better
alternative. He or she will have to experience
the consequences of their actions instead of
leaving it all behind.
No man deserves to die because of his crime;
life imprisonment is a better option for a
criminal to be punished. There are too many
problems if capital punishment was in effect.
Innocent people would die because the justice
system does not carefully handle the case and
they cannot defend themselves well. As a
Catholic nation, it is not agreed upon today that
death penalty gives justice. The Catholics
believe that only the Lord can decide a man’s
fate. Death penalty should not be imposed in
the country since it against Catholic teachings
the criminal justice system is faulty.