CHURCH leaders and a party-list lawmaker on Sunday weighed in against fresh calls to revive the death penalty, with the latter openly urging President Duterte to perish the thought, since he won’t be seeing executions within his term anyway.
Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza on Sunday urged President Duterte to drop his push to bring back the death penalty via lethal injection, calling it “an exercise in futility and an utter waste of time.”
In a statement, Atienza said, “The President won’t get any satisfaction, even if his allies in Congress steamroller the passage of a new law reviving death sentences. The President still won’t see any judicial executions while he is in office, so he might as well give it up.”
Atienza had earlier said focusing on the death penalty while the nation struggles to save lives amid the Covid-19 pandemic did not make sense.
“Besides, the President’s wish to put convicts to death via a medically induced coma is no longer possible,” Atienza, a pro-life crusader, said.
Sodium thiopental— the first of the three-drug concoction used to deprive convicts of life and brain function in lethal injection —is no longer legally available, according to Atienza, former three-term mayor of Manila.
Due to humanitarian concerns, the entire world has stopped producing and trading in the powerful anesthetic used to render convicts unconscious, before they are given a paralytic agent and a heart stopper, said Atienza.
Bishop Pabillo
Speaking out against attempts by lawmakers to revive death penalty and the government’s insufficient response to Covid-19 shows not only one’s love of the country, but also of God, Manila Bishop Broderick Pabillo said, for his part.
Pabillo made the statement days after a recent Social Weather Station (SWS) revealed that 51 percent agree with the statement “it is dangerous to print or broadcast anything critical of the administration, even if it is the truth.”
The prelate expressed his concern over this trend of not wanting to respond to pressing social issues out of fear being labeled as “trolls” or even “rebels.”
Pabillo noted that many of such issues will not be addressed unless people call it out like what the medical workers, who wrote Duterte last week, begging him to reimpose an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila to give exhausted medical workers some reprieve from rising Covid-19 cases and give the government time to improve its response.
Duterte eventually granted the request by placing the National Capital Region (NCR), Bulacan, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal under modified ECQ from August 4 to 18, 2020.
“They wrote [to the President] because they cared. They cared seemingly that our response to the health crisis is not enough,” Pabillo said during his homily shown on Sunday via live stream by Radyo Veritas.
He said the same patriotism should also be shown in opposing legislation to bring back capital punishment.
Pabillo noted it is “shameful and concerning” for the government to be preoccupied with death penalty amid its surging Covid-19 cases, which reached 129,913 as of August 9, 2020.
“Let us not allow our senators and congressmen to pass laws which are immoral and kill. Let us tell them to focus on the complaints of the people who are looking for jobs, something to eat, and medicine [during the Covid crisis],” Pabillo said.
Macro aspect
Through this love for country, he noted, one can also show one’s love for God.
“When we think of love, we often think of personal love…. But love also has a macro aspect. A social aspect. Love of country is also love. And where there is love country, God is there,” Pabillo said.
“God is making Himself felt through the poor condition of our country. Let us love our country and embrace God of history,” he added.
Pabillo’s mass on Sunday in Radyo Veritas, was his first after having recovered from Covid-19. He tested positive for the virus last month.
“I would like to thank all of you who prayed for me when I got sick. I would also like to thank God for allowing me to overcome it,” Pabillo said.