The former execution chamber at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) is now a dust-riddled exhibit. Roddy*, a minimum-security prisoner, has been sweeping the floors every day since 2005, when the chamber was made part of NBP’s museum.
Roddy goes through each section of the chamber, recalling what the rooms are for. Here is the room in which the prisoner is kept until it is time, there the gurney on which he would later be strapped. Leo Echegaray was the first to die here—all pleas for reprieve shot down. Six others would die on the same gurney within 12 months after Echegaray’s execution in February 1999.
The paraphernalia seem untouched since they were last used. Roddy believes the ghosts of the seven executed convicts lurk among them.
Revisiting death penalty
Since the Spanish era, death penalty had been considered as the highest form of punishment in the Philippines against convicts. In the 19th century, electrocution emerged as the sole method of execution. From 1924 to 1976, a total of 84 prisoners were put to death by the electric chair.
But with the newly revised 1987 Constitution, the death penalty was prohibited. Remaining sentences then were reduced to reclusion perpetua, which means 40 years of imprisonment unless granted with parole or pardon. It was stated, however, that the Congress had the power to reinstate it for “compelling reasons involving heinous crimes.” Ultimately, the amendment on death penalty was repealed by Congress.
As response to the dramatic upsurge in heinous crimes, the death penalty was restored by the Ramos regime in 1993 under Republic Act No. 7659. It was imposed on offenders of capital crimes such as murder, rape, drug trafficking, and carnapping. Three years later, lethal injection replaced electrocution under Republic Act No. 8177.
But things did not last for the death penalty when Estrada’s successor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, decided to abolish it in 2006 through Republic Act No. 9346. As a result, a total of 1,230 death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. Amnesty International dubbed it as the “largest ever commutation of death sentences.”
This made the Philippines the first Asian country to abolish death penalty twice. In spite of this, there remains a portion of Filipinos who still push for its return. Notably, Senator Tito Sotto filed a bill to reimpose the death penalty in 2014, but it is still pending in the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, Revision of Codes and Laws and the Committee on Justice and Human Rights.
First, law enforcement
Alternative Law Groups, Inc. (ALG) national coordinator Atty. Marlon Manuel sees support for the death penalty as a legitimate reaction from victims’ families. But while one cannot fault them, Manuel says that “there is no proof that the imposition of death penalty [reduced] the crime rate. In any country, [there is no] direct evidence.”
Majority of the executions were carried out in 1999, the year when Echegaray–a rape convict–was killed. Instead of reducing the crime rate in the country, the figure increased by 15.3%, or a total of 82,538 crimes.
A panel data estimation of Philippine crime trends from 1983-2003 further shows that the death penalty did not figure as a significant variable for rape incidence trends. Only population density and unemployment rate were found to be of influence, each displaying a positive correlation with the said crime.
“The best way to deter offenses is for the offender to fear the certainty of arrest and punishment,” Manuel said. In the Philippines, with a current crime rate of 1,004 per population of 100,000, there is little fear among offenders because of what Manuel believes to be weak law enforcement.
Based on the annual Philippine Statistics Authority report in 2012, the police to population ratio was 1:651, with 217,812 crimes reported that year. Efficiency rate, which measures whether or not crimes have been solved, was at 36.57%. This figure fell to 28.6% in 2013.
Moreover, the Philippine Star reports that the Philippine National Police was found to be the most corrupt national government institution in 2013, based on a survey by independent watchdog agency Transparency International.
“As long as people’s frustrations are not addressed because of the weakness of our law enforcement, people will always find an easy answer in the death penalty,” Coalition Against Death Penalty (CADP) President Silvino Borres, SJ, said in an interview with The GUIDON.
Borres was among the leaders who pushed for the abolition of the death penalty. The legal battle has been won, Borres said, but much remains in terms of educating the public on the death penalty’s implications.
Erring justice
Criminal justice and correctional measures are another point to consider, as Manuel pointed out that the problem does not end in a criminal’s arrest.
After arrest come the judicial processes of trial and adjudication. Only after these may correction be imposed. It is a system that involves lawyers, judges, and prosecutors whose legal services do not come easy for marginalized groups.
ALG, of which Manuel is a part, is a coalition of organizations that intend to bridge this problem in access, as they help groups like farmers, women, indigenous peoples, and even those concerned with the environment with legal concerns.
“Aside from the overload of the cases for judges, prosecutors, and public defenders, you also have vacancies in courts… [and] loopholes in the rules that can be taken advantage of by some lawyers to delay the proceedings,” says Manuel. Aside from causing delays, such cases often lead to wrongful convictions.
According to a study published in the Ateneo Law Journal, the Supreme Court found that 651 out of 907 death penalty cases in between 1993 and 2004 were in fact wrongful convictions. These cases were either commuted to life sentences or dropped altogether after the abolition of capital punishment in 2006.
‘The justice system has been used… to commit injustices against both victim and accused,” says Manuel, “so the death penalty is a gamble. Pwede kang tumama, pwedeng mali [so the death penalty is a gamble. You may be lucky or you may not].”
Fixing the system
Despite the loopholes within the justice system, various civil society and church organizations have been trailblazing efforts in achieving transparency and restorative justice.
Restorative justice is one of the major advocacies of CADP. Borres explains that it operates on the idea that “the response for crime is not just punishment.” He adds that the relationship between the offender and the victim of the crime should be mended in times of tragedy. Although he admits that they are saddled by the lack of resources, he believes that the people are ready for the “long process of dealing.”
“People would like to take shortcuts and already for the long call of restoring relationships. If it can work in several countries, like in New Zealand [and] Canada, it’s really a challenge [for us],” he says.
Meanwhile, Manuel explains there is much to untangle in the different areas of the Philippine justice system. He observed the public’s lack of knowledge of the justice system, affecting the poor and middle class citizens alike.
To address these issues, ALG has been working on a project entitled “Hustisya Natin” since December 2015. The three-and-a-half-year project calls on civil society organizations (CSOs) to monitor judicial activities within the justice system, from the performance and attendance of local judges to the decision-making of the Supreme Court. According to Manuel, this not only serves as an opportunity to enhance CSOs but also as an avenue for public participation.
“We have to work if we want the justice system to work, because this is our justice system, so we have to participate actively,” he adds.
Editor’s Note: Names have been changed to protect the interviewee’s identity.
The efficiency in the enforcement of the Rule of Law could be greatly improved if we adopt the Grand Jury and Trial Jury Systems in the Philippines.
Currently, Philippine Justice is a monopoly of the government as well as of the rich and powerful. The people are unable to check the abuses in justice because they have no voice in justice. As far as justice in the Philippines is concerned, justice is none of the people’s business. RESULT: The common people are nothing more than beggars of justice notwithstanding the fact that “Sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them. For lack of participation of the people in the function of justice, Philippine justice looks toward the people’s sovereignty as a ZOMBIE sovereignty.
This writer has drafted a proposed jury adoption law which can either be passed by Congress or by the people directly by means of the people’s initiative under RA 6735. The draft includes the proposed Standard Grand Jury Instruction and the Trial Jury Instruction. This proposed law need not require a prior constitutional amendment. All that is needed is to invoke the sovereign power of the people to decide under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution to adopt the Jury System of Justice.
The Jury System is a a mere procedural device. The substantive right of the people to decide in justice has already built in the above referenced constitutional provision. This writer respectfully urges the following dignitaries to come together in using their strong influence to unite to sponsor the adoption of the drafted jury law by means of a people’s initiative:
1. Former President Fidel Ramos;
2. Archbishop Deogracias Villegas, current president of the CBCP;
3. Vice President Leni Robredo;
4. CHED Chairperson, Patricia Licuanan.
With the CBCP involvement, gathering of signatures of registered voters to support the petition before the COMELEC to secure the scheduling the publication of the proposed Jury legislation and the setting of the election date by the people to vote the jury adoption, it would be convenient to secure the said signatures of registered voters by asking the voluntary efforts of students in all Catholic Schools and colleges around the country in as much as there are already Catholic institution in almost all and each legislative districts in the country where such signatures can be gathered to satisfy the requirement of RA 6735. .
This writer is ready to submit a CD containing his proposed Jury adoption materials by providing him a requestor’s mailing address. He had been working on this project since the time of Cory Aquino’s presidency. With the enactment of the proposed law, he is even very confident that the mastermind in the murder of Senator Ninoy Aquino could be found through the efforts of the Grand Juries.