Death penalty revival has economic repercussions – Lopez

Economic repercussions await the Philippines should the planned revival of the death penalty in the country push through, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.

The trade chief, however, said he is willing to risk it to improve the peace and order situation in the country.

“For me, I would go with what is good for the country. In other words, if to maintain peace and order and improve security conditions in the country, if bringing back the death penalty is the solution, I would go with it if that will contribute to overall peace and order,” Lopez said.

“With that, I would then justify and maybe request those partner countries giving GSP (Generalized System of Preferences) to give us the flexibility if this is what is needed in the country,” he added.

With the proposal to revive the death penalty for certain heinous crimes, the Philippines puts at risk the GSP plus (GSP+) status it currently enjoys with the European Union (EU).

The Philippines was granted beneficiary country status under the EU-GSP+ in December 2014, allowing the country to export 6,274 eligible products duty-free to the EU market.

The country’s beneficiary status under the GSP+, however, necessitates the implementation of the 27 international treaties and conventions on human rights, labor rights, environment, and governance.

“My thinking of why GSP is provided is basically to help the developing country in whatever program is needed to improve the economy and uplift the lives of the people there. If bringing back the death penalty is a solution to peace and order, and helping the nation progress more with peace and discipline in the people, then they should support that,” Lopez said.

“I would go with what our administration would push for which we believe is good for the country because you see, with all these efforts we’ve been doing, crime rates have gone down. I believe they will study this carefully. So in other words, I’m not arguing that this is better and the other is not. What I am saying is if that is the solution that we will arrive at after deliberation in the Congress and Senate and in the security cluster, then I would go with it and just rely on the consideration of the foreign bodies about their position on this,” he added.

The Philippines and Cambodia are the only two Asia-Pacific countries that have abolished capital punishment.

At the end of the day, he said it is

a decision of what is really more essential to the Philippines.

“I would just tell them that there is an economic impact, but at the end we’d have to weigh it with the political, peace and order, and security impact. If the President, the cabinet cluster and maybe the legislators would in the end bring that back, after a thorough deliberation of pros and cons, then I won’t argue. In other words, I’d take it despite saying the economic impact which means the benefits of this far outweigh the benefits of GSP+,” Lopez said.

“I think this is similar to the stance of what the president is saying on the Millenium Aid. I like that position because to me, the developed countries, we go back to the principle of friendship and support. If you are a friend, a supporter, then I would support you in those critical programs. If this is a way to bring back order and discipline and progress, then these groups in the EU should be able to support us so we’d be able to progress well and help the economy. If there is prosperity, there would be less of this crime, and less need for that,” he said.

Prior to the proposed revival of death penalty wherein President Duterte threatened to execute criminals daily, the Commission on Human Rights has warned the government about its war on drugs and the alleged cases of extrajudicial killings, saying that these may put in danger the country’s privileges under the EU-GSP+.

In January last year, prior to the entry of the current administration, the European Commission said the Philippines has been making progress on implementing the 27 international conventions after it adopted its first GSP monitoring report to the European Parliament and assessed the Philippines’ implementation of the conventions.

When asked on what will happen should the EU revokes the Philippines GSP+ status, Lopez said “we will probably channel our exports to other market.”