Republic Act (RA) 7659

By:
Alexandra Mari Mañego Manigos
Gian Carlo D. Mallari
Kim Clarence M. Maclang
Ma. Camela B. Lucas
Mary Rose R. Lardizabal

Have you ever asked yourself, “Why do I still exist? What value do I have in the world?”
As long as you live in the world, did you find your worth? Did anyone give you the worth and
love that you are searching for? Did you love someone unconditionally? Can you do anything for
your loved ones just to fulfill their emptiness even though it carries you to do evil?

One of the most talk issues in our community today is the punishment for those criminals
are the death penalty. Considering that if this punishments once approves of the legislator and
becomes a law, it can lessen the number of crimes and it may lead to a happy and healthy
community. Different opinions and perception regarding this death penalty punishment arise
when many politicians pursuing to pass this as a law. Some say that this will really make the
crime rates decrease and the fear of the people in the community will vanish but also, there are
other people that are still against it.

 Poverty, peer pressure, drugs, politics, religion, family conditions, the society,
unemployment are some of the common reasons for committing crime. Do you think it is enough
and a valid reason to punish someone who committed the crime? Is the death penalty an effective
punishment for criminals? 

Republic Act (RA) 7659 which took effect on December 3, 1993. The death penalty is
one of the cruelest types of criminal punishment, which is performed with the help of different
methods such as hanging, electrocution, and lethal injections. The death penalty is brutal on
society. The brutalization effect suggests that when violence is condoned via the death penalty,
more violence occurs. Homicide rates tend to increase around the time of executions, due to
legitimation, desensitization, and limitation.
 Today, the House of Representatives of the Philippines adopted on its third and final
reading of House Bill 4727, a measure put forward by President Duterte’s majority coalition to
reintroduce the death penalty. Can the death penalty be effective? There are numerous debates
about the death penalty, as the opinions on this topic differ in different countries of the world.
Most countries have abolished the death penalty, but there are still countries where it is used. The
effectiveness of the death penalty can be measured by the rates of crimes that demonstrate that
this method of punishment does not reduce the number of criminal acts. (Goodman, Paul. “The
Pros and Cons of the Death Penalty.” Soapboxie, 2018)

The main goal of the death penalty is to decrease the numbers of abhorrent crimes in the
world. However, the statistics show that it does not have as many positive effects as expected. If
the death penalty was an effective method for the prevention and decrease of crime, the statistics
would demonstrate that states with the death penalty would have lower crime rates. Conversely,
the statistics show the opposite result, which means that it does not have high effectiveness,

Today, capital punishment most likely has other goals, such as revenge. It violates human
rights, which is why a lots of people are against this type of punishment. According to Champa
Patel, Amnesty International’s Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, “The idea that the
death penalty will rid the country of drugs is simply wrong. The resumption of executions will
not rid the Philippines of problems associated with drugs or deter crime. It is an inhumane,
ineffective punishment and is never the solution. The Philippines’ attempts to reintroduce it are
clearly unlawful.” There is also no evidence to show that the death penalty has a unique
deterrent effect.

According to Commondreams.Organization, “we need to kill the death penalty, not

people” they gave the 10 reasons why, any one of which could be enough. (1) Democracy. The
death penalty is totalitarian. I don’t want anyone killed in my name, in our name. When the
government prosecutes, convicts, sentences, and executes defendants, we the people are the
plaintiff. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel famously said that in a democracy, not all are at fault,
but everyone is responsible. (2) Barbarism. The death penalty is barbaric and an antiquated,
regressive, “cruel and unusual” punishment. With all of our advances in the sciences, sociology,
psychology, education, technology, and so on, we should have more socially-effective, non-
lethal, civilized techniques to punish (and rehabilitate) criminals, while protecting the rest of
society. (3) Cost. The death penalty is quite expensive and life imprisonment can be cheaper.
Over the lifetime of a case, executing prisoners can be three times as expensive as life in prison,
primarily due to the higher costs of capital punishment trials, automatic appeals, and the
heightened security on death row with lower staff-to-prisoner ratios. (4) Deterrence. The death
penalty doesn’t have a deterrent factor and doesn’t decrease crime. States with the death penalty
do not have lower homicide rates. Many criminals don’t get caught, most criminals don’t receive
the death penalty, and those who do are typically on death row for a long time, often at least a
decade and sometimes more, so would-be criminals don’t typically make a connection between
their crime and capital punishment. We cannot conclude that the death penalty has any deterrent
effect on crime, including murder. (5) Brutalization Effect. The death penalty is brutal on
society. The brutalization effect suggests that when violence is condoned via the death penalty,
more violence occurs. (6) Civilization. The death penalty is uncivilized. (7) Innocence. Innocent
people are on death row and innocent people have been put to death. (8) Racism. The death
penalty is racist and has been applied in racially-discriminatory ways. (9) Humanity. The death
penalty is inhumane. Killing people makes us like the murderers who most of us so despise. (10)
Social Change. The tide is turning against the death penalty.

We as a student of College Of Our Lady Of Mercy were opinion about this is “life is a
gift that everyone deserves. I am not against of justice, I’m against of the ways implementing the
justice. In contrary to death penalty there is life imprisonment that I am favored to serve justice.
In that case that the suspect got the life he deserved. We are only human”- Gian Carlo D.
Mallari (BSCRIM 1). Opposite opinion by Alexandra Mari Mañego Manigos (BSCRIM 1) which
is agreed with the death penalty of the reasons “1. Death penalty is just a punishment for people
who has taken a life of another person. 2. Prevent people from committing heinous criminal acts.
3. Safety for the people. This is related to the criminals who has been repeating crimes and
killing people mercilessly. This is one way to stop them from doing it again. 4. Less suffering. It
will be the easiest, quickest and painless way for the criminals. Rather than spending rest of the
lives in jail. Makes the death penalty more humane to the criminals.” “As part of this
community, I do agree that death penalty has two sides that can be negative or positive. The
capital punishment may help to decrease the number of crime rates in our country, but the
problem is, we don’t have a quality justice system. I will be in favor to death penalty if the
punishment fits to the crime, if you killed someone else you should be killed too. Also, it is
possible that someone can do such a crime in order to save themselves from harm or in short
they use it for self-defense. Somehow, death penalty can possibly lessen the crimes, and this may
give justice and attain human rights at the same time. But what if an innocent is sentenced to
death penalty? Our justice might kill someone who deserves a life. Our justice system is horrible
to the point that if you are rich, you can be separated from other inmates and has your own
prison cell with television and air condition. Another thing that I disgusted about with our
justice system is when the former house speaker representative, Pantaleon Alvarez stated in one
of his interviews that in death penalty punishment they allow debate that will probably long for
30 minutes to hear both sides of the inmates being involved. Honestly, 30 minutes are not
enough for that kind of matter, we are talking about death and someone’s life is at stake. How
possible that 30 minutes are enough to know who is the right criminal deserves the punishment.
Our country needed to fix first the justice system before they restore the capital punishment
again. I strongly disagree with death penalty as a effective punishment for criminals. Actually,
we have no right to take someone’s life just because they’ve done something unforgivable. We
are only humans, not perfect at all. Every day is another day to change our life. We are all
sinners trying to live in righteousness. I still never lose hope that those people commit crimes
can change and start again a new life, it reminds me of many stories in the bible (A woman
caught in adultery John 8:1-11, The conversion of Saul Acts 9:1-19 and Jesus and the good thief
at the cross Luke 23: 32-43). Life is a precious gift from God and a human like us can never take
it away from other people and as well as for ourselves.” - Ma. Camela B. Lucas (BSRT 2) - while
in Kim Clarence M. Maclang’s (BSRT 2) opinion “no one deserves to die. When the government
metrs out vengeance disguised as justice, it becomes complicit with killers in devaluing human
life and human dignity. In civilized society, we reject the principle of literally doing to criminals
what they do to their victims: the penalty for rape cannot be rape, also for arson, the burning
down of the arsonist’s house. We should not, therefore, punish the murderer with death and let
God punish them.”

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REFERENCES:
https://www.Commondreams.Organization.com
https://www.untvweb.com/news/death-penalty-in-ph-how-it-started/