De Lima lectures Duterte on mantra of own fraternity

Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Saturday said President Rodrigo Duterte misrepresented the Philippine penal system when he said that it was about retribution or an "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth."

"He misrepresented that our penal laws follow a purely retributive philosophy, and made grossly ignorant and reprehensible attacks on the humanity of people who find themselves in conflict of the law and under the jurisdiction of our correctional system," De Lima said in a statement.

The senator, who is currently detained on drug charges, was reacting to Duterte's statement last Wednesday night that the Revised Penal Code is all about retribution.

“So ang ating Revised Penal Code is retribution. Kung ano ‘yung — an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That’s the basic law of a jungle. Kung nagkasala ka at pumatay ka bayaran mo ng buhay,” he said.

“Hanggang ngayon, kaming mga abogado would tell you na tayo — kasi ‘yung mga — reclusion temporal to reclusion perpetua. Have you not noticed that? It is basically retribution,” he added.

The President was lecturing United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions Agnes Callamard about the essence of the Revised Penal Code.

De Lima clarified that the country's penal system aims to "balance out both the penal and restorative aspects of an ideal correctional system."

She added that "the penalty has to be commensurate to the crime, and once served, it must leave the person capable of being reintegrated into society."

"That's why it's called both a penal and correctional system, not a slaughterhouse," she said.

Three days before Duterte gave the lecture, the President launched fresh tirades at Callamard for calling on the Philippines in a tweet to make Kian Loyd delos Santos' death the last in the government's war on drugs.

Lex Talionis

De Lima said that it seemed Duterte is the one who needs to be lectured on the Revised Penal Code.

"He and everyone who works in the implementation of our correctional system ought to educate and train themselves to think like wardens or caretakers, like shepherds that do not abandon those who have lost their way. Instead, they opt for the easy and lazy solutions: kill them all. Kill them because they are nothing but animals," she said.

In her statement, De Lima said she was surprised to learn that Duterte seemed to be not familiar with the mantra of his own fraternity, Lex Talionis, which is “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.”

"The mantra means 'law that exacts the same amount.' Not the exact same thing, of course, because literally exacting the same thing will leave our country in a cycle of retaliation, and with a society that becomes sicker and sicker with every act of retaliation," she said.

"Lex talionis simply means that punishment should not exceed injury. It actually calls for moderation in our system of crime and punishment. A term that is perhaps something the President does not understand, just as he doesn't understand that he, as the President, is our leader—not our executioner and butcher," she added. —Anna Felicia Bajo/ALG, GMA News