Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Judy M. Taguiwalo today submitted the agency’s position paper on Senate Bill Nos. 04, 42, 185, 187, 368, and 985 which all address the issue of capital punishment in the Philippines.

In a position paper submitted to Sen. Richard Gordon who is the chair of the senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights, Sec. Taguiwalo said that the DSWD considers respect for human dignity as one of its core values, and as such it expresses its strong objection to the legislative proposals which propose the reinstitutionalization of capital punishment.

She said that instead of re-institutionalizing capital punishment, priority should be given to reforming the existing criminal and justice system to ensure that offenders, or whatever social class get caught, and justice is delivered to all fairly.

“Capital punishment is cruel, degrading, and inhuman. It goes against the right of individuals to life as provided for in core universal and regional human rights instruments, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which aims to abolish death penalty. This rights should not be disregarded, regardless of an individual’s needs, especially since empirical evidence shows that ‘criminality’ is determined by a number of factors including poverty, lack of education, marginal economic opportunities, even disability,” she said.

Sec. Taguiwalo said that capital punishment is anti-poor in the context of the Philippines’ justice system where resolutions to cases are always long delayed and the process itself is expensive.

“In 2012, the Integrated Bar of the Philippine (IBP) pegged a lawyer’s ‘acceptance fee’ at P30,000 to defend a person accused in a criminal case that will be heard at the lowest level court. Overworked and underpaid public lawyers cannot do much to help many of those accused among the ranks of the poor. On the other hand, influential and moneyed offenders can pay private counsels who work on their cases full time,” she said. This, she explained, already made the system unfair.

Sec. Taguiwalo also cited the results of a 2004 survey of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) which state that 70% of 1, 121 inmates on death row before the death penalty was abolished in 2006 earned less than P10,00 a month. Also, 81% worked in low-income jobs as sales, service, factory, agricultural, transport or construction workers.

“The meager income of the poor, aggravated by the lack of education and marginal economic opportunities, preclude them from affording effective legal representation in court,” she said. She also pointed the FLAG data that 71% of the death sentences handed down by the trial courts were wrongfully imposed. In essence, this means that there are seven innocent lives out of 10 convicted on death row,” she said.

Finally, Sec. Taguiwalo said that the use of capital punishment does not prevent the commitment of crimes. She said that to date, there is no reliable evidence that can show that capital punishment has a direct impact on reducing crimes, much less preventing offenders from committing further crimes. In contrast, studies have shown that the certainty of getting caught has been known to be a deterrent to crime.

“The use of capital punishment also extinguishes the offender’s hopes to reform and engage in rehabilitation. It highlights the permanency of their offense, instead of their capacity to change for the better through the process of restorative justice which would enable them to connect, reconcile, and learn from their offense. Proponents of restorative justice have attested that offenders who were given the chance to face the consequences of their actions were more prepared to rebuild their lives through reparations and acceptance of responsibility,” she said. #