Legalizing Death Penalty in The Philippines

Prepared by:

Adrian Blair G. Chiong

BS-Entreprenuership

A112

Submitted to:

Cedric Joseph Mandap

I. Introduction

Death penalty also called as capital punishment is when a criminal is executed or put to death
after being convicted by court of law of a criminal offense (Hood, n.d.).

Life. Life has been the greatest gift that we humans have received from our great creator, and
no one has the right to take the gift God has bestowed upon us which is life. However,
criminals, terrorist or wicked people have no problem in taking human lives every time
people get in their way. Taking lives from people is just like breathing air for them. It is
normal, habitual and an action needed to be done to live. Legalizing death penalty might
invalidate the right of life. But in order to save lives, lessen the number of criminals and in
order to slow down the spread of growth of criminals, death penalty should be legalized in
the Philippines.

Legalizing death penalty has its pros and cons. First, it can provide families of the victims
with some closure, which may help them to deal with their suffering. Some criminals who
are released from jail after serving their prison sentence, some criminals would continue to
commit crimes. Second, it discourages people from committing crime for they know the
consequences that would be brought upon them if they ever decided to commit crime. Third,
it saves the government money. Rather than having the criminals being kept for life in prison
while giving them food, water, and clothes until they die of old age, death penalty saves the
government money from cutting costs. (Goodman, 2021). Legalizing death penalty cuts the
population within prison. During 2015 in the state of California, there were 750 people on
death row. By managing this process so that it is efficient, including any appeals or pleadings
which are legally permitted, it becomes possible to manage the population. Families that
were affected by criminal actions won’t be re-victimized. Legalizing death penalty also
eliminates the possibility of escape. Drug Lord Joaquin Guzman or also known as “El
Chapo” has a history of being captured and escaping from maximum security prisons with
the help of security guards that he bribed, he escaped prison in a dirty laundry cart.
Legalizing death penalty also has its cons such as taking the right of life, it is cruel and
inhumane (Goodman, 2021).
 II. Body

Singapore. A country in where death penalty is legalized and still used upon to this day. Since
the year 1991 to the present year the number of people that were executed amounts up to 400
plus. The legalization of death penalty can help a country lower its crime rates if done right. In
Singapore on October 2020, Law Minister K. Shanmugam stated that the death penalty is a
powerful deterrent to capital crimes in Singapore. In addition Law Minister K. Shanmugam
stated that the rate of fire-arm related offences and kidnapping cases had dropped significantly
after the introduction of death penalty. A survey was conducted on 2019 by the Ministry of
Home Affairs (MHA) on whether Singaporeans supported death penalty, the survey resulted in
“very strong” which meant that most Singaporeans support death penalty. The survey conducted
by the Ministry of Home Affairs found that 82% of the respondents believed that death penalty
deterred people from committing serious crimes in Singapore. 69% believed that death penalty is
way more effective in discouraging people from committing serious crimes as compared to life
imprisonment. Lastly, 83% believed that believed that death penalty makes people not want to
traffic huge amounts of drugs into Singapore. As we can see, Singapore is very much a peaceful
country compared to the Philippines. Singapore has a crime rate of 24% while the Philippines
has a crime rate of 43.44%. Safety of walking alone at night in Singapore is at 72.91% while the
Philippines has 56.27%. If we were to compare Singapore and the Philippines in terms of
peacefulness, the Philippines is nowhere near Singapore.

III. Conclusion

I conclude that if death penalty were to be legalized in the Philippines, crime rates would drop by
a significant amount if done right. People would be afraid to commit crimes, some people might
even be afraid of only thinking about committing a crime. Most Criminals here in the Philippines
continue to commit crime even though they were imprisoned for a long time because they know
that they would still get out of prison after waiting years. But if death penalty were to be
legalized, people would start thinking more carefully about their actions before doing anything
wicked for they know they would face death if death if death penalty were to be legalized here in
the Philippines.
IV. References

Numbeo (n.d.). Crime Comparison Between Philippines and Singapore. Retrieved from
https://www.numbeo.com/crime/compare_countries_result.jsp?
country1=Philippines&country2=Singapore

PTI (2022, March 3). Singapore residents supports death penalty for some crimes, says
Minister. Retrieved from https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/singapore-
residents-supports-death-penalty-for-some-crimes-says-minister/article65186890.ece

Wikipedia (n.d.). Capital punishment in Singapore. Retrieved from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Singapore

Amnesty (n.d.) Singapore: The death penalty - A hidden toll of executions. Retrieved
from https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/asa360012004en.pdf

Miller, K. (n.d.). 18 Advantages and Disadvantages of the Death Penalty. Retrieved

from https://futureofworking.com/10-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-the-death-
penalty/

Goodman, P. (2021, December 23). The Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty. Retrieved
from https://soapboxie.com/government/Death-Penalty-Pros-and-Cons#:~:text=The
%20death%20penalty%20can%20provide,from%20committing%20more%20serious
%20offenses.

Hood, R. (n.d.). Capital Punishment/ Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/topic/capital-punishment