House panel told: Revive death penalty, lower plunder threshold

An anti-crime group on Wednesday appealed to the House of Representatives to support not only bringing back the death penalty but also lowering the threshold amount for plunder.

Presenting his group's arguments before the House justice committee, Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption founding chair Dante Jimenez said the death penalty should be restored to support the Duterte administration's campaign against illegal drugs and corruption.

The VACC also proposed the downgrading of the threshold amount for plunder from P50 million to P10 million "to discourage the stealing of the people's money by public and private officials."

"Almost 10 years had passed, more than enough time has been given. Has there been any improvement in our criminal justice system? It has actually deteriorated beyond redemption," said Jimenez.

He cited the New Bilibid Prison where, in the years following the death penalty's abolition in 2006, criminality, the VACC claimed, had only "increased in alarming proportions especially during the Aquino administration," adding that convicts had only been living a life in luxury and comfort.

The House justice committee recently concluded an investigation where Bilibid convicts testified about the proliferation of illegal activities inside the national penitentiary during the Aquino administration.

The VACC said the argument that death penalty has no deterrent effect is a "sweeping argument." The group said the argument that death penalty is a cruel punishment in violation of the Constitution "does not hold water."

The group said the 1987 Philippine charter allows the death penalty to be imposed for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, which Congress must define.

"We could not fathom how those against the death penalty could be mentioning about the rights of killers, and the death penalty to be inhuman in the face of the massacre of entire families," said Jimenez.

The first bill seeking to revive the death penalty for heinous crimes such as plunder, trafficking of illegal drugs, and carnapping was filed by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro last July.

The lawmakers, however, proposed that the death penalty be carried out through lethal injection, in contrast to President Rodrigo Duterte's preference for hanging. There are currently seven bill seeking the reimposition of capital punishment. —ALG, GMA News