Handbook vs. death penalty

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines - Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, together with the Free Legal Assistance Group, the Commission on Human Rights, and other members of the Anti-Death Penalty Task Force launched a handbook opposing capital punishment.

‘Tending Life’ features studies and articles backing the failure of death penalty to address criminality and the proliferation of illegal drugs.

Rodolfo Diamante, executive secretary of the commission said, “any deprivation of the right to life will not gain justice for all.”

“Rendering the death penalty as a means to obtain justice simply does the opposite as recent history has proven,” Diamante said in a CBCP News post.

The anti-death penalty advocates recently marked the 12th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in the country with a holy mass.

The group said they are keeping an eye on the Senate’s decision on the reimposition of the capital punishment.

“The death penalty has not deterred criminality and has even spurred more injustice by killing the innocent, those wrongly accused, those without proper defense, and those who have been deprived of the opportunity to reform and restore the injury they caused to others. This is because ours is a system of justice replete with human errors,” Diamante stressed.