Why Death Penalty Shouldn't be Legalized in the Philippines?

We all have our own opinions and reasons why capital punishment should or should not be allowed to be applied in a certain country. We have watched different documentaries to know what happens to an individual when convicted of a crime punishable by the death penalty. We have seen a country's situation if ever the government imposes such a law and how the people react differently. I haven't been in a country where it imposes capital punishment so my own-experience thoughts are not a credible source but I do have opinions regarding this matter since there are still countries that have this kind of law.

Actually, if we are to look at the Bible, both the Hebrew Testament and the New Testament, there are cases where such people are killed by other people as part of a "law" where if they have been convicted of a crime, they should be put to death. As many people know, a punishment called "stone-to-death" can be a form of capital punishment, since the people are in a decision when it comes to a criminal's consequence. In ancient Israel, stone-to-death is a "normal" thing, especially if the person had done such cruel things as blasphemy and idolatry. Blasphemy is speaking not-so-respectful words towards God and idolatry is having another figure that is categorized as God. In the Hebrew Bible, capital punishment is a thing. People believed back in time that whoever strikes a man shall be put to death. This notion was rejected by Jesus in the New Testament. However, you can still read in the New Testament the story of Saint Stephen, recognized as the first martyr in Christian theology. He was taken out of the court during the trial of his case which was blasphemy, taken to the city, and was stoned to death. His final words were forgiveness to those people who put him in his last position.

By the way, when someone corrects your opinion by using the words in the Bible, you may question them if they are talking about the Hebrew or the New Testament. These books have completely different opinions on things since Jesus was not yet born in the Hebrew Bible.

I'm going to state my opinion regarding Death Penalty. Overall, I do believe that Death Penalty is a good law. It may sound inhuman and un-Christian but there's a deeper picture on it. Capital crimes such as murder and drug trafficking, or even rape since there are countries that used the death penalty as the final verdict for proven-guilty criminals, can be lessened or even put to zero cases when capital punishment is imposed. I honestly think that people will be bothered with how their future will be stopped if ever they committed a crime. However, people are not thinking the way these laws want them to think. We have laws provided by the government because we want to order and peace. And if you don't have a law or the law you just broke, that's your fault because you should know these things. In my opinion, most crimes under the laws are those that are "disturbing" crimes. Because as you can see, a crime is a crime when you did something horrible to a person, simple as that.

People always say that there's still a chance for a person to change when they committed a crime. And this is why people are not afraid to break the law because they know that they will not be dead when they do it. It will only be a scary situation for them when they disturbed an individual who has the capability to put the law in their hands. We have second chances in life, same as the criminals. However, what about those victims, whose lives were ended by someone. What about their dreams and families? What about these victims' plans for their future? Their second chance never existed anymore because of a crime by someone. This is only my take on the reason that people deserve a second chance. Because that is not why the death penalty should be imposed.

But even though I am pro-Death Penalty, I don't think that it should be a law in the Philippines.

First of all, the justice system in the Philippines is not as good as we think it is. The law is not on the people's side most times. There are times when people can easily manipulate someone or a situation to be able to get out of a crime. Innocent people may go to prison and get killed if justice failed on their part. There is this case of a man, Paco Larrañaga, who was put to jail because he was convicted of rape and murder of two sisters. He was not given capital punishment, which he was supposed to have, because former President Arroyo changed the law. If you are going to look at his documentary, you can really say how innocent he is, alongside his 6 fellow inmates. The most unrealistic part of the trial is that Larrañaga was not allowed to test in his own defense which was already not a good thing. Because even though you are said to be the one responsible for the crime, you have to explain yourself, whether you are telling a lie or not. This is an interesting documentary so I really recommend watching it. It shows how the justice system in the Philippines can be biased if they want to.

Second of all, money is the root of all evil. People in general, not just the high-profiled individuals or those in the government, are overtaken by money. When someone commits a crime and they have money to pass by the punishment, they will pay a certain amount. When people want to process documents, even to the extent that these documents will look real, they will pay good money for it. Even those who are sitting who should be balanced when it comes to cases in courts can easily be taken over by money. I'm not saying that all of them but since we don't know who's who in the ocean, we will look at all salmons as one. We don't even name this salmon so we all categorized them as a single thing.

As I said, I haven't been in a country that has a law of capital punishment. But if we are to look at different things in the Philippines, right now is not the time to do it.