LELANI P. ECHAVES:

Even earlier, the Philippines already ranked first in the Global Impunity Index (GII) 2015 report. Conducted by the Centro de Estudios sobre Impunidad y Justicia of the Universidad de las Americas Puebla, the GII is the first major international academic effort to measure impunity. Impunity means the lack of punishment or impossibility of bringing perpetrators to account for their violations, usu- ally because they are not subject to being accused, arrested, tried and, if found guilty, sentenced to appropriate penalties and making reparations to their victims.

Party-list group Buhay’s Rep. Lito Atienza says it’s useless to reimpose the death penalty. First, the move will be stymied by questions about its Constitutionality.

Second, because of the appeal levels, judicial executions during President Duterte’s term will be most unlikely.

He’s begging the question, assuming that Duterte will wait for the Senate to echo the House.

As Duterte’s past actuations have shown, the normal procedure is not always the best way. If not overt, then covert. In the war against illegal drugs, not just the drug lords died; 30 of the 500 victims were “collateral damage.”

“Operation Tokhang” became a vehicle for uniformed scalawags to perpetrate “kidnap-for-ransom” activities. Instead of knocking on houses to convince drug suspects to surrender to the police force, Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo was taken to and hidden inside Camp Crame, and eventually killed there.

Duterte and his police chief continue to deny involvement in extra-judicial killings (EJK’s) among the over 7,000 killed so far.

It’s not the police force, they say. Yet, we still have to see concrete and credible efforts at pursuing the perpetrators of EJK’s. In the ongoing war against drugs, the battle cry has become “I don’t care how they die, or at whose hands they die, as long as they die.”

Various groups have every right to protest the killings with impunity.

Even earlier, the Philippines already ranked first in the Global Impunity Index (GII) 2015 report. Conducted by the Centro de Estudios sobre Impunidad y Justicia of the Universidad de las Americas Puebla, the GII is the first major international academic effort to measure impunity.

Impunity means the lack of punishment or impossibility of bringing perpetrators to account for their violations, usually because they are not subject to being accused, arrested, tried and, if found guilty, sentenced to appropriate penalties and making reparations to their victims.

The GII 2015 studied the structural, functional and human rights dimensions of 193 UN member states and 14 other territories, and also considered the World Bank’s Rule of Law Index and the Corruption Index.

It found that impunity tends to be higher in countries with the highest levels of corruption and the weakest rule of law.

The Philippines, Mexico, Turkey, Colombia and Russia were, in that order, the top five countries with the highest impunity rates.

Then Duterte came in. In the war against drugs, he was quoted as saying, nay bragging, that the police force need not fear lawsuits because he would have their back.

Also, that they should not hesitate to shoot the suspects, which he later qualified into “if they eluded arrest.”

Amnesty International reported that in the five-year period 2007-2012, the countries that abolished the death penalty rose from 48 to 97. Will this matter to Duterte? Doesn’t he believe in two sides --- the wrong side and his side?

Reimpose the death penalty and Duterte will only cement the Philippines’ first place in the Global Impunity Index.