With the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights poised to tackle proposals to reimpose the death penalty, Senator Richard J. Gordon maintained his stand that a revival of the capital punishment will not deter criminals.
Gordon, who chairs the Justice committee, insisted on his claim that life is precious and that imposing the death penalty is not a solution to the rising criminality in the country.
“My father was assassinated, tatlong attempt sa buhay ng tatay ko, baka nga apat o lima pa e. But I’m against it [death penalty] because that’s not the solution,” said Gordon.
While there may be fear on the part of criminals, Gordon said it would be for only a brief period. The fear does not last long. It’s like instant gratification,” he said.
The senator also noted that poor people would be most likely to be meted the death penalty, justly or unjustly, once it is re-imposed since they are the ones usually accused of crimes and they could hardly afford the services of lawyers.
“Palaging mahirap ang pumapatay, sila ang natatamaan. Wala silang abogado dahil sa poverty,” he stressed.
Gordon pointed out that amending the penal system to ensure that convicts would be locked up in prisons that are located far from their families and giving a bigger stigma to criminals, would be more of a deterrent to crime.
“If you jail a person and our justice system, our penal system is that you are living in a far place, it would be difficult for your family to visit you. There should be publicity, we have the website, this person killed and he is now in jail. There’s stigma in your family,” explained Gordon.
Conceding that such proposal is not really a sufficient solution, Gordon proposed that ensuring that people get better education and employment opportunities would reduce the need to commit crimes.
“Poverty drives one to kill or to commit crimes. The hired killers, they receive payments to kill since they have no job. The thieves, they do not know any job so they were forced to rob,” he said.