By Mortz C. Ortigoza
“Pin-head o mahina rin ang utak nitong
senator na ito,” this what I quipped after I read the Face Book’s post on
the proposed death penalty bill of Senator Risa Hontiveros published by
Politics.com.ph.
Hontiveros
assailed the proposed death penalty passed by the House of Representatives that
she and her Liberal Party’s colleague wanted to torpedo after it reached at the
Senate.
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| TOP BRASS. From left Philippine National Police's Director General Ronald dela Rosa and Senator Panfilo Lacson. Photo Credit: Meme Buster |
“Death penalty is a cruel, inhumane and degrading
punishment, which has a disproportionate impact on the poor and little
guarantee that innocent people, would not be sentenced to death,” Hontiveros
wrote and was quoted by the Liberal Party’s friendly website.
In that
article, Politics.com.ph posted a poster of national hero Dr. Jose Rizal and
the three activist priests Fathers Mariano Gomez, José Burgos,
and Jacinto Zamora, called as Gomburza for brevity by Filipinos, who were
victims of death penalty by quoting Hontiveros’ comment “simply for standing up for equal rights, freedom and democracy.”
The
website titled its paraphrase of Hontiveros Face Book’s post as: “Paano kung inosente? Risa Hontiveros
opposes ‘cruel’ death penalty”.
My
reaction: How could those convicted felons killed by
a firing squad, lethal injection, electric chair, guillotine, or by the noose
that needs only somebody to kick the stool
where the convicted criminal
stands, according to another “intellectual giant” Senator Manny Pacquiao,
so this forsaken, soft, and criminal
friendly country could save for electricity when the poor convict would be
given due process and free lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office or PAO and
after his conviction by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) his case would have an
automatic review by the Supreme Court?
Death
Penalty is justifiable than the government’s gauntlet hand policy on “shooting
it out with the suspected hard core criminals” at a drop of a hat or
arbitrarily extra judicially killing them.
We should
get rid of this kind of death as it already reached the 6,000 mark after
President Rodrigo Duterte assumed office middle of last year.
Let’s
legalized execution by creating more RTCs so death would have due process.
How Jose
Rizal and GomBurZa became victims because they stood “simply for standing up
for equal rights, freedom and democracy” as espoused by Hontiveros, could not
get my comprehension.
What kind
of logic is that Politics.com.ph and Senator Hontiveros?
Dangerous
drug lords whose products turned a human being into a monster like being a robber,
kidnapper, or rapist who mercilessly killed their victim did not stand for
equal rights, freedom, and democracy.
