Bishop: Death penalty a 'cosmetic solution' to crimes

MANILA, Philippines - Restoring the death penalty is just a "cosmetic solution" to the problem of rising incidents of crimes in the country, a senior Catholic bishop said. Bishop Pedro Arigo, head of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care of the Catholic Church in the country, said killing criminals will not address the root cause of crimes. "(The death penalty is nothing but a) cosmetic solution (that will give) an illusion that we are doing something about crime," he said in a statement posted on the CBCP website. Arigo appealed to Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri to "stop giving us false hopes that we will be safe and secure by putting people to death." Zubiri has called for the restoration of the death penalty. The bishop said the killing of convicts will not address the root, as well as the immediate, cause of crime. "It is an easy way out addressing the complex and pervasive problems of criminality. Killing people is never the answer," Arigo said. Archbishop Paciano Aniceto of the Episcopal Commission on Family and Life said the revival of the death penalty is nothing but "a step backward" for a country already "progressing." "Death penalty is not a solution. There are many detainees in the maximum security facility, including those facing the death penalty, but we still do not see improvements in our society," he said. He also reiterated the Church's position that only God can take away what he gave to man via a natural death. Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez, for his part, tagged Zubiri's proposal as "anti-life and anti-love." President Arroyo abolished the death penalty on June 24, 2006 to serve as her gift to Pope Benedict XVI, whom she was to visit the very next day. - GMANews.TV