Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Key opponents of the death penalty voiced opinions Thursday as the House of Representatives began debates on a bill to reimpose capital punishment.
Former chief justice Hilario Davide hopes the bill doesnt reach President Rodrigo Duterte’s table for signing.
In a forum on Thursday, the former chief magistrate expressed doubts on capital punishment’s impact on lowering crime rates, and proposed an alternative.
“It would be a lifetime of hard labor if it is really to be a deterrent,” Davide said.
Watch: Restoring the death penalty: Weighing in on Duterte’s plan
Davide was the first proponent of the abolition of death penalty in the 1971 Constitutional Convention.
He added, bringing back the death penalty would be a backward move.
“A majority of the countries of the world are abolitionists. You have more than a hundred countries with total and absolute abolition of the death penalty,” he said.
Human rights lawyer and former senator Rene Saguisag agreed. He says capital punishment is worse than extrajudicial killings.
“It is judicial murder,” Saguisag said.
Reviving the death penalty was one of President Duterte’s key campaign promises. Lawmakers in the lower house have rallied behind him to push for its return, while the Senate is divided on the issue.
The president said he will carry out daily executions of criminals once capital punishment is back.
Watch: Duterte wants to restore death penalty by hanging
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle, meanwhile, in a statement, said penalties are not imposed for vengeance but for the rehabilitation of offenders.
“I offer these thoughts for your serene study and prayer. If you share these convictions, you should make them known to your elected representatives,” Tagle addressed the public.
He added, death penalty promotes a culture of violence, and legitimizes the use of it in dealing with every wrong doing.
The death penalty was abolished under the 1987 Constitution. Former President Fidel Ramos reinstated the death penalty in 1993, only to be abolished again in 2006 after then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed a law reducing maximum punishment to life imprisonment.
Also read: Legislative battle on Death Penalty begins
