The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) reminded the Philippine government on Wednesday that it is legally bound not to restore capital punishment in the country.
“The Philippines is in fact under a legal obligation not to restore the death penalty,” said CBCP President and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas in CBCP’s ethical guidelines on the proposals to restore death penalty, issued today.
The prelate said the Philippines is one of the countries which ratified the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a side agreement to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Article I of this protocol states that, “no one within the jurisdiction of a State Party to the present Protocol shall be executed; and, each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction.”
The archbishop added that there is nothing in the Protocol that allows the Philippines to renounce the international agreement.
“In fact, it would not be in our best interests to do so, in light of the fact that in respect to other aspects of our national life, we take refuge and seek legal relief under the norms of international law and international agreements,” Villegas said.
It was in December 1966 when the Philippines, through Salvador Lopez, then delegate to the United Nations, signed the ICCPR.
The second optional Protocol was then adopted and proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1989.
“Our position against the death penalty therefore rests not only on considerations of human dignity but has legal foundation,” the archbishop said.
The Cory Aquino government abolished the death penalty after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship in 1986.
Capital punishment was restored for “heinous crimes” during the Ramos government, and it was carried out by the Estrada administration starting in 1999 with the execution of Leo Echegaray in 1999. This was followed by a long moratorium, and in 2006, the Arroyo government abolished the death penalty.
President Rodrigo Duterte wants to reinstate the death penalty again to fight criminality, and his allies in Congress have already filed bills on this.
APPEAL TO CATHOLICS
In the CBCP guidelines, Villegas cited Bible passages, Church teachings, as well as the words of the current and the previous popes, denouncing the cruelty of death penalty.
“When the State kills in the name of justice, it is in fact saying that the condemned person has no right to live, is undeserving of the basic right to life, and that there is no saving quality or attribute in him or her whatsoever,” he said.
“This is a position that the Christian cannot and must not maintain. The Gospel by which we all live and in which we all find hope is one that proclaims the inestimable value of human life and the inexhaustible love and mercy of God that constantly renews, even when it seems that no renewal is likely or possible!”
Villegas called on Catholic lawmakers to withhold support for any attempt to resurrect capital punishment in the country.
The archbishop also called on Catholic jurists to study and oppose the proposal though proper judicial proceedings.
excerpt from source