Death penalty? Let’s focus instead on life amid COVID-19 —Binay

Senator Nancy Binay on Thursday questioned the push to bring back the death penalty at a time when so many Filipinos are already dying.

“Every day, there are reports na 20 yung namatay today. The next day 30, 40. We need to talk about paano tayo mabubuhay and by discussing death penalty...kamatayan pa rin ba yung kailangan pag-uusapan?” Binay said in a CNN Philippines interview.

“The conversation will shift towards death again when there's so much death already happening around us. Para sa akin, at the moment, mag-focus muna tayo kung paano tayo mabubuhay, at kung paano natin bubuhayin ang ating mga kababayan,” Binay added.

Binay made the comments in response to President Rodrigo Duterte's call to reimpose capital punishment for drug-related crimes during the Chief Executive’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), delivered amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Philippines has at least 85,486 COVID-19 cases as of Wednesday afternoon. Of this number, 26,996 have recovered while 1,962 have died. This leaves the number of active COVID-19 cases at 56,528.

“If I were to grade the SONA of the President, I would say it's incomplete. I expected more pagdating doon sa kung papaano natin bibigyang solusyon pagdating dito sa problema natin sa COVID-19,” Binay said.

“Medyo kulang pagdating doon sa detalye, doon sa roadmap, more or less, sana doon nag-focus ang ating Presidente,” she added.

Binay then argued that given the country’s ill justice system, reimposing death penalty is only a death sentence for the poor.

“I am against the death penalty. Unless maayos natin yung justice system natin, kawawa ‘yung mga mahihirap. They can't afford the best lawyers,” Binay said.

“Hindi magiging patas ang hustisya hangga't hindi naaayos ito,” she added. — BM, GMA News