A TOTAL of 6,204 people were sentenced to life in prison instead of death for committing heinous crimes after the death penalty was abolished in 2006, Bureau of Corrections Director Benjamin Delos Santos said Tuesday.
He told the Senate hearing on the death penalty that the figure was a 3,280-percent increase in the number of people convicted for heinous crimes.
Delos Santos made his statement even as Senate President Pro Tempore Franklin Drilon said the plan to reimpose the death penalty died in the Senate due to the Philippines’ treaty commitment.
“It is clear that we can no longer revive the penalty of death because of our treaty commitment,” Drilon said.
“A treaty was included in our law and that was ratified here in the Senate and became part of the law of our land.”
Delos Santos said before the death penalty was revoked, 189 people were convicted to death for committing heinous crimes.
But he said any discussion on the death penalty would be divisive.
“Being with the [Bureau of Corrections], I would not delve on the arguments whether I’m for or against it,” Delos Santos said, adding he was giving the statistics for the consideration of the senators.
Delos Santos said there were 17,655 inmates nationwide and of those 5,591 were serving life sentences.
Senator Leila de Lima said she would always be against the death penalty because it was wrong on legal, moral, ethical and constitutional grounds.
“I’m here to listen more to the anti-death penalty advocates for them to be able to convince the majority of our people not to support the bills pushing for the reimposition of the death penalty,” she said.
Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros said the countries that imposed the death penalty on drug traffickers did not curb illegal drug trafficking.
“According to Amnesty International, thousands of people have been executed for drug offenses since 1959 in Iran,” Hontiveros said.
“In 2015 Iran had 829 executions, 571 for drug-related offenses. However, the Iranian government itself admitted that the death penalty had failed to reduce drug trafficking in the country.”
Hontiveros said the death penalty was a dangerous shortcut, and that it was irreversible and irreparable.
She said what were needed were reforms in the country’s justice system and a rules-based law enforcement strategy targeting big-time drug syndicates.
“The government must bring the campaign versus the drug lords and not to the poor,” Hontiveros said.
Side by side with a public health approach to the drug problem, our drug law enforcement strategy must shift focus to organized drug syndicates. We must focus on crimes associated with big drug operations such as money laundering and extortion.”
