Press Release
January 12, 2009

Make haste slowly on re-imposing death penalty - Gordon

Independent Senator Richard J. Gordon today called on his colleagues in the Senate to make haste slowly on calls by some quarters for Congress to re-impose the death penalty against illegal drug trafficking in the country.

Gordon, who voted for the repeal of the death penalty law in 2006, said that while the call to re-impose the death penalty on drug trafficking appears to be a "seductive exigency," it should be resisted on both substantive and pragmatic grounds.

"I'm against the death penalty not only because there is empirical data showing that it has no deterrent effect but also our law enforcement and criminal justice system do not have the science for a thorough investigation and prosecution," he said.

"I would not like to see the death penalty, which many democratic nations have veered away from, be reinstalled unless we have the forensic capability to solve crimes and send criminals to death row with absolute inconvertible proof," he added.

Gordon, himself having been a victim of heinous crime with the assassination of his father, the late Olongapo City Mayor James Gordon, cautioned against hastily passing a law or rushing any "popular quick fixes" that would result in more serious long-term problems.

"The haste of some politicians to identify quickly with the latest public angst does not usually make a good law. Rushing to re-impose death as a penalty is a step towards the wrong direction. Festina lente. Let us make haste slowly," he said.

Gordon pointed out that no less than the Supreme Court has admitted that there exists a grave danger that convicts could be erroneously executed, considering statistics on judicial error rates.

He added the death penalty has been aptly substituted with prison sentences of more than 20 years up to 40 years without parole, which have not been proven to be less effective in deterring heinous crimes.

Gordon also noted that looking at a historical and worldwide perspective, there has been a growing global movement away from the death penalty in almost all European nations and even in America.

In 1987, the country's death penalty law was abolished, but was re-imposed in 1994 due to a surge in heinous crimes. The executions, however, started only in 1999 and seven death convicts were executed by lethal injection until 2000.

In 2000, former President Joseph Estrada ordered a moratorium on judicial executions, amid strong lobbying by the Catholic Church and the European Union as well as local and international human rights groups.

In June 2006, Congress passed an act repealing the death penalty law of 1994, later signed into law by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

News Latest News Feed