The Commission on Human Rights on Sunday said that it remains opposed to the return of capital punishment.
“Despite formidable efforts to reintroduce the death penalty, we remain steadfast on our resolve to keeping the country death penalty free. It is not only a legal obligation but a moral duty. Death penalty is a false promise. Let us break free from death penalty. No to death penalty!,” Commissioner Karen Gomez Dumpit said during the 18th World Day Against Death Penalty.
Dumpit is the commission’s focal commissioner on anti-death penalty.
“With the global theme, “Access to Counsel – A Matter of Life or Death,” the spotlight is on the right to effective legal representation, during all stages of arrest, detention, trial and post-trial, which is a pillar in the right to a fair trial. Without access to effective legal representation, due process cannot be guaranteed,” she said in a statement.
The CHR said several studies showed that those facing execution are mostly from the country’s poor, with no access to competent counsel nor to decent education that empower them with knowledge about their rights.
Citing the National Survey on the Public Perception on the Death Penalty in 2018, the CHR said 63 percent agree that most people in death row are poor people who cannot afford a good lawyer.
“This paints a miserable picture where many find themselves on death row—a fact that has been recognized by the Supreme Court through People v. Mateo, where it determined that the error rate in imposing the death sentence is 71.77 percent,” it added.
Dumpit said “while we remain death penalty free so far, efforts to bring back the death penalty have not ceased with its inclusion in the President’s legislative agenda, prompting its vigorous pursuit by the administration’s allies in the legislature.”
She added that the 18th World Day Against Death Penalty is “an occasion to once again remind our legislators to reflect on the consequences of bringing back capital punishment. Appropriate with this year’s theme is the plight of our overseas Filipino workers currently undergoing trial for crimes that could lead to capital punishment and those who already face the death penalty.”
“One of the arguments we have raised in the recent congressional hearings on the death penalty is that it will lead to the weakening of our moral ground to plead for the lives of our OFWs in death row. It is hypocritical to ask to spare the lives of Filipinos abroad while we move to execute people back home,” she said.
“Despite formidable efforts to reintroduce the death penalty, we remain steadfast on our resolve to keeping the country death penalty free. It is not only a legal obligation but a moral duty. Death penalty is a false promise. Let us break free from death penalty. No to death penalty!”.