‘Focus on pandemic first, leave death penalty to next admin’

“The government should concentrate on saving lives and quelling the coronavirus pandemic now and allow the next administration to worry about the proposal to bring back the death penalty.”

This was Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza’s “polite rejoinder” to President Rodrigo Duterte’s call for Congress to revive capital punishment for heinous crimes.

“We’re now in the middle of a public health disaster that has already demolished the livelihood and jobs of millions of Filipinos,” Atienza, former three-term mayor of Manila, said.

“Both Malacañang and Congress should focus on suppressing COVID-19, stabilizing a dangerously teetering economy and recovering lost jobs, instead of wasting time on the death penalty,” Atienza said.

For years, Atienza has been fighting against the restoration of the death penalty on the grounds that it violates the sanctity of life and constitutes cruel and inhuman punishment.

Atienza on Sunday urged Malacañang to give up on reintroducing the extreme punishment, calling it “an exercise in futility.”

“First of all, Congress realistically lacks the time to work on the death penalty,” Atienza said.

“Secondly, in less than 22 months, we will be electing a new president and a new Congress, so we might as well let the next administration worry about the highly divisive proposal,” Atienza said.

“Thirdly, even assuming Congress reinstates the death penalty tomorrow, the President still won’t see any judicial executions being carried out for the remainder of his term,” Atienza said.

The last time Congress passed a law reimposing capital punishment in 1993, the first death verdict was not carried out until 1999, or until six years later, due to legal challenges and mandatory reviews, Atienza pointed out.

Instead of renewing death sentences, Atienza pressed for wide-ranging reforms in the criminal justice system.

Atienza cited the need to stamp out rampant corruption in law enforcement, the prosecution service, the judiciary, and in prisons.

“We have to ensure that every felon is apprehended, prosecuted, convicted and locked up. This is our best strategy to fight crime – to discourage other would-be offenders,” Atienza said.