PNP chief backtracks, to toe Aquino line on death penalty

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome said Sunday he will toe President Benigno Aquino III's line of not pushing for the revival of the death penalty. Bartolome said that with his commander-in-chief having spoken on the issue, he will now only concentrate on enforcing the law. "Kung ano sinabi ng Pangulo ‘yan ang susundin. We toe the line. Sabi niya hindi handa sa usaping ‘yan, susuportahan namin," he said in an interview on government-run dzRB radio. "Hindi ako gumagawa ng batas, kami nagpapatupad ng batas," Bartolome added. He said he merely brought up the matter last Friday after noting how criminals are becoming much bolder. Bartolome batted for the return of the death penalty to deter crime, a day after robbers struck at the Robinsons Galleria mall. One person was killed while six others were wounded in the robbery. “Palagay ko napapanahon nang ibalik ito. Sumosobra ang ang mga criminal elements, wala silang pakundangan sa buhay ng tao,” he had said in an interview on dzBB radio. “Parang hindi na rin sila natatakot mamatay. Hindi rin titigil ang pulis natin,” he added. But presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Aquino has firmly stated that the judicial system is not ready to implement capital punishment. Barbaric Some lawmakers are also not keen on bringing back the death penalty, with one — Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello — describing Bartolome's proposal as "barbaric." “It [death penalty] doesn’t work. It promotes the illusion that force rather than improvement of social conditions is the key to the security of the community,” Bello said Sunday.   Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya also junked Bartolome’s proposal, and instead urged the government to focus on judicial reforms. “The real deterrent to crime is good law enforcement work and the assurance of being convicted and jailed,” he said. "Maximize fear"   But at least one lawmaker, Senior Deputy Majority Leader Janet Garin, had expressed support to Bartolome’s view, citing “the apparent daring attitude of criminals” in the country.   “The glaring disrespect to law enforcers simply means that fear should be maximized as a deterrent to heinous activities,” she said in a separate statement Sunday.   Garin, however, echoed Abaya’s stand that the re-imposition of capital punishment should be coupled with the “cleansing” of the country’s justice system. Death penalty in PHL The death penalty went into effect in 1994, in the wake of a series of heinous crimes. It aimed to deter people from committing heinous crimes. During the Estrada administration, rape convict Leo Echegaray was the first to be executed under the death penalty. He was executed by lethal injection on February 5, 1999. But on Dec. 10, 2000, Human Rights Day, then President Joseph Estrada announced he would commute sentences of all death convicts to life imprisonment. In June 2006, days before she was to meet with Pope Benedict XVI, then-President Gloria Arroyo signed Republic Act 9346 prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty. - with Andreo C. Calonzo/KBK, GMA News