Talaga! Voting for Death Penalty ?! I say NO !
NO TO DEATH PENALTY
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Students hold a noise barrage in Manila against extrajudicial killings and the proposed revival of the death penalty, March 8, 2017. CLAUDINE ATIOAN/CONTRIBUTOR |
Der Gesetzesentwurf für die Todesstrafe in den Philippinen rückt näher, nachdem dieser im Abgeordnetenhaus bewilligt wurde. Gleichzeitig wurde Plünderung von der Liste der Verbrechen auf Todesstrafe entfernt.
http://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/latest-news/ Hier die Pressestimmen:
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine lower house lawmakers overwhelmingly approved the re-imposition of capital punishment for serious drug offences on Tuesday, clearing another hurdle in President Rodrigo Duterte's drive to use death as a deterrent against crime.
Voting 216 to 54 with one abstention, lawmakers passed the third and final reading the bill to bring back the death penalty, but in a watered-down draft that excludes crimes like rape, kidnap-for-ransom and plunder.
The bill, which permits death by hanging, firing squad and lethal injection, must now go to the Senate.
A return of the death penalty, over a decade after it was abolished under pressure from the church, has been a top priority for Duterte, who was swept to power on promises of a merciless war on drugs and crime.
More than 8,000 people have been killed since Duterte took office eight months ago, mostly drug users killed by mysterious gunmen in incidents authorities attribute to vigilantes, gang members silencing informants, or unrelated murders.
Re-imposing capital punishment was Duterte's first piece of draft legislation and was submitted on his inauguration on June 30. It argued the justice system had been "emasculated" and tough measures were needed.
Duterte has questioned why lawmakers excluded serious crimes other than drugs, saying it runs counter to his law and order agenda. He has spoken repeatedly of his desire to hang criminals, as many as 20 per day.
Robert Ace Barbers, who heads the house committee on dangerous drugs, said death for those who manufacture and possess large volumes of narcotics was appropriate because of the "irreparable damage" drugs had caused to society.
"The entire future of our country has been compromised," he told reporters.
Human rights groups and Catholic bishops oppose the bill and have protested outside Congress and warned politicians supporting it to expect a backlash from their constituents.
Opponents spoke out strongly in the house, describing the measure as barbaric, regressive and no deterrent against crime.
Representative Jose Christopher Belonte said lawmakers voting in favor would have "blood on our hands".
Congressman and former Manila mayor Joselito Atienza said the bill would put "a curse on our predominantly Catholic nation".
The passage through the Senate is not guaranteed to be smooth. Some Duterte loyalists in the chamber oppose it.
Deliberations by the 24-seat upper house on its own version of the bill were suspended last month after the justice department reminded senators the Philippines is a signatory to a United Nations treaty that prohibits executions.
The death penalty has been imposed and repealed on and off in the Philippines since after World War Two.
Dozens of convicts were executed by electric chair from 1950 to 1986. The death penalty was abolished a year later and restored in 1993 under President Fidel Ramos, before being scrapped again in 2006.
The International Commission on Jurists condemned the house and urged the Senate to block a bill that "puts the Philippines in direct conflict with its international obligations".
By Manuel Mogato (Editing by Martin Petty)
CBCP give solons 3 arguments vs kill bill
By Christine Paguirigan | Mar 22, 2017
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) during their plenary assembly. ROY LAGARDE
MANILA – In an effort to dialogue with lawmakers on the issue of death penalty, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) wrote to the senators, presenting three ultimate reasons why the said bill should be rejected.
Citing facts, the bishops said reviving death penalty is “not necessary,” it will “not be helpful,” and it “will not it be a move towards greater justice.”
The letter emphasized how the revival of capital punishment is not a move towards justice because “the trend in dealing with crimes now should be towards restorative, which seeks healing and reform, not vindictive justice.”
More than 70% judicial error
In addition, they noted, Supreme Court records show judicial error in death penalty cases is more than 70%.
“No study has shown that the imposition of death penalty is an effective deterrent to the commission of crimes. It may also weaken any appeal for clemency we make for our countrymen and women who have been sentenced to death in other countries,” they noted.
“For all these reasons among others, we ask you, dear senators, to reject the re-imposition of the death penalty,” appealed Archbishop Socrates Villegas, CBCP president, in the letter.
Strong opposition
The CBCP issued several pastoral letters showing strong opposition to the measure as well as one which expressed disappointment over the Lower House’s approval of the bill on March 7.
In one pastoral letter, Villegas expressed the bishops’ admiration for members of the House of Representatives who willingly accepted ouster from their positions in the Chamber because they voted against the Duterte administration’s pet bill.
On several occasions, the lay community has also voiced out their resistance against the bill by joining candle-lighting ceremonies, “Walk for Life” events, and noise barrages throughout the nation.
Now that reimposition of the death penalty lies in the vote of the Senate, the bishops continues to ask the faithful to pray for the senators and their votes. CBCPNews
Thousands join simultaneous ‘Walk for Life’
A diverse crowd carrying colorful placards and chanting slogans took the streets in a simultaneous marches across the country Saturday, all with the aim of promoting the sanctity of human life.
Austria’s Catholic bishops have joined the international community in condemning the human rights abuses and killings in the Philippines.
CBCP frowns on ‘Biblical argument’ for death penalty
In a pastoral statement, the Catholic bishops renewed their appeal for lawmakers to reject the bill reimposing the death penalty in the country. ROY LAGARDE
MANILA— The Catholic Church on Sunday issued a statement objecting to supposed misinterpretations and misuse of the Scriptures to argue for the death penalty.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines did not mention any politician or individual by name but said the use of the Bible to defend capital punishment is unnecessary.
“To the people who use the Bible to defend death penalty, need we point out how many other crimes against humanity have been justified, using the same Bible?” the bishops said in a pastoral letter.
“We humbly enjoin them to interpret the Scriptures properly, to read them as a progressive revelation of God’s will to humankind, with its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, God’s definitive Word to the world,” they said.
‘First to cast a stone’
According to them, “Jesus was never an advocate of any form of legal killing”.
“He came ‘not to abolish the law but to bring it to fulfillment,’” they said. “He defended the adulterous woman against those who demanded her blood and challenged those who were without sin among them to be the first to cast a stone on her.”
The pastoral statement was read in Masses across the country on March 18, third Sunday of Lent.
It is also their second statement, as a collegial body, on the death penalty in less than a year. In September 2016, the bishops issued “ethical guidelines” on the matter.On several, recent occasions, the country’s more than 90 active bishops rallied the faithful to protest the death penalty reimposition.
No guarantee of due process
The leaders of Asia’s biggest Catholic nation also lamented how the proposed measure was approved on second reading at the House of Representatives on Ash Wednesday.
It was “ironic”, the prelates noted, that many lawmakers were shouting in favor of death with their foreheads marked with ashen crosses.
“Could they have missed out the contradiction between their vote and the crosses on their foreheads, which were supposed to serve as a loud statement of faith in the God who, for love of us, chose to give up his life for our salvation, rather than see us perish?” they added.
The CBCP again warned that capital punishment and a flawed legal system are “always a lethal mix”, adding that the poor are likely to get punished more quickly because they cannot afford a good lawyer and a guarantee of due process.
Now that the battleground for President Rodrigo Duterte’s signature kill bill has shifted to the Senate, the bishops asked the faithful to pray for the senators as they prepare to vote on the measure. CBCPNews
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