The Pros and Cons of Death Penalty: San Ildefonso College

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
San Ildefonso College

“Envision itself as faith community, globally competitive, academically excellent, certified and accredited.”
S.Y. 2018-2019
The Pros and Cons of Death Penalty
Submitted By: Marjoe Juachon
11-STEM
Submitted To: Mr. Jervy Mark Viray
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S.Y. 2018-2019
The Pros and Cons of Death Penalty
Death penalty which is also known as “Capital punishment” is a legal

process where the state sends a death row inmate to execution as their
punishment for a serious offense committed.
Other countries still practiced this but it has been abolished in United
States and still observed in several states. While death penalty in the
Philippines, just passed on its third and final reading that seeks the return of
it last Tuesday, March 07. There are still strong opinions shared by both anti
and pro- death penalty.
And since this has been a long standing argument between two
opposing parties. Here are the list of “Pros” and “Cons” of death penalty.
PROS OF DEATH PENALTY
It daunt people to commit dreadful crimes l. Criminals will get scared

of committing crimes because they will suffer such harsh punishment. The
fear of suffering will discouraged these potential criminals to commit crimes.
Death penalty costs the government less. Compared to the costs of life
imprisonment they will be given the expenses of food, health care and other
costs that will sustain their lives. Some critics says that spending for people
who committed such heinous crimes is impractical and just a waste of
taxpayers’
Death Penalty will reduce the number of crime rate in the country
because criminals will just be taking advantage of people without harsh
punishments.
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S.Y. 2018-2019
It is what hardened criminals deserve. Criminals become bolder and

careless to commit crimes knowing that they will only be imprisoned that is
why they are not scared of repeating heinous crimes. Thus, these type of
people should be put to death to project the majority.
Death penalty is just punishable to drug related crimes only, which

was stated under the House Bill Number 4727. However, President Rodrigo
“Digong” Duterte wants plunder, rape to be next in line among the heinous
crimes punishable with death penalty.
CONS OF DEATH PENALTY
There are innocent people wrongly executed. Critics believed that they
keep on sending innocent people who are wrongly accused to death row and
the sad thing about this is that, innocence is proven after the execution has
been carried out.
Critics also argue that death penalty does not really deter criminals
from committing crimes, since there are criminals who suffer from mental
illness and death sentence will not prevent them from doing things they can
no longer control without proper medication.
Pro death penalty believed that feeding the inmates is much more
expensive than death penalty. On contrary to that, Anti- death penalty
believes that the drug used in lethal injection and other expenses related to
execution is much more costly.
Death penalty is a form of revenge. While pro death penalty thinks

that capital punishment is a form of death retribution, Anti-death penalty
also believes that to avenge a crime committed by individual may be
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S.Y. 2018-2019
understandable yet killing someone is also unconstitutional. It is also a crime

that is only masked by the term capital punishment but the reality is, it only
continues the series of violence.
People who have been involved in the process of death penalty suffer
from depression out of guilt from having to end another person’s life. Former
executioner once stated that people who participated in executions were
later destroyed, some of them turned to drugs and alcohol to feel better.
It is a platform that is anti-poor because accused people who are poor

are mostly the ones who get the death penalty, since these people lack
finances to pay for powerful defence attorneys.
It is not humanity and cannot be undone. Those innocent criminals

who got executed and then latter would have proven the person’s innocence,
he or she can never be brought back to life anymore.
With the on-going issue about death penalty, opinions continues to be

divided. Deciding which opinion is able to prove a more logical perspective
regarding on the issue can be challenging with the disparate views of
proponents and opponents.
Reference:
http://reporter.ph/death-penalty-pros-and-cons-in-the-philippines/
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Critical Comprehension
Main vs. Supporting Details
This article states the different views and perspective about the death
penalty here in the Philippines. The president Duterte is planning to restore
the death penalty, and caused multiple reactions and comments throughout
the whole country, some agrees, and some disagrees upon their own certain
reason.
According to Reporter.ph: “The House of representatives approved on

the third and final reading reimposing the death penalty bill for drug-related
crimes on Tuesday, March 07, 2017.
A total of 217 votes for “Yes” to death penalty bill while 54 votes for
those who are against it and 1 abstention. There have been 257
congressmen who were present in the voting out of 293.”
Here the government clearly states that they are in fact, in favour of
bringing the old justice system using the Death Penalty but there will be
both positive and negative effects and opinions about it.
According to Toots Ople February 2017 “I can’t exactly remember

when I switched sides. It may have been during the time when Dondon
Lanuza reached out to our non-profit organization, the Blas F. Ople Policy
Center, because he needed to raise millions in blood money in order to
prevent his own execution in Saudi Arabia. He once told me that he would
sleep in his bunk bed at the Saudi jail and be jolted awake, fearful that the
jail guards would be coming to drag him to the plaza to be beheaded.
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S.Y. 2018-2019
Certainly, I could never go back to favoring the death penalty after

helping the family of OFW Jakatia Pawa before, during and after her
execution in Kuwait. She was hanged despite being innocent.” Disagreeing in
the use of death penalty, on the article that she wrote, she agrees in death
penalty at first because of the inhuman killings of some sinners, until she
saw that some innocent people are accused and killed by the penalty.
But according to Tony Katigbak (The Philippine Star) - August 13,

2018, “I think it’s time for the government to revive the death penalty in
view of the rising heinous crimes being perpetrated out on the streets and
homes even in broad daylight. Some of the murders take place in full view of
the public and there are others could be drug-induced. Despite CCTV
cameras on the streets, lampposts on roofs of houses and shopping centers,
the killers don’t seem to mind being identified. Some of the criminals are
paid for their dastardly act, because they know that even if they are caught
alive they will spend time in prison and eventually released or dug their way
out of prison. Our jails are already overcrowded so it makes sense to dispose
of first degree murderers to dispose of those who are found by the judge of
guilty beyond reasonable doubt to execute them. It may not solve the crime
entirely, but the killers may have to think twice before committing the
crime.” Agreeing in terms of restoring the use of death penalty, in his point
of view, the criminal acts heartlessly and does not change even after prison
or during imprisonment.
Both has their own point and opinions about the restoration of the old
justice system but, in some case it is still the government who is in control
of everything, they can control the country’s improvement but they can also
control criminal acts themselves and corrupt the country.
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S.Y. 2018-2019
Summary
People that are in favour of death penalty thinks that it will be the only
way to lessen and mitigate the crime rate in our country, because the
criminals are unstoppable, heartless and they wouldn’t change the way they
live, they will just continue their wrongdoings even inside or outside the
prison, while the people that are not in favour of the implementation of the
old justice system thinks about all the innocent lives that will be lost if they
continue or restore the death penalty. There are two sides of reviving the
death penalty, but it is up to the government if they will use their power in a
positive or negative way.
Conclusion
There can be various opinions of different people, but they are not
making effort to improve the system, if the government does not accuse and
forge and innocent person to commit the crime that one has not committed,
if the citizens created a way to follow the rules and lessen the crime rate,
our country would have been stable and controlled. It is not the law that
should be changed; it is the mind-set of the people in the government and
our fellow countrymen.
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S.Y. 2018-2019
Facts vs. Opinion
There are different studies that state different views. After Marcos was
deposed in 1986, the newly drafted 1987 Constitution prohibited the death
penalty but allowed the Congress to reinstate it "hereafter" for "heinous
crimes"; making the Philippines the first Asian country to abolish capital
punishment. The imposition of the death penalty in the country has had a
repressive history. For the most part (from 1848 to 1987), it was used to
curtail the liberties, freedoms and rights of the Filipino people. In recent
history, however, the death penalty was reimposed as a knee-jerk response
to what has largely been seen as rising criminality in the country. The
following, with help from the Mamamayang Tutol sa Bitay-Movement for
Restorative Justice, traces the death penalty’s historical roots and context in
Philippine society, but when the president was tough about the crimes, it is
when the crime rate got low and had better establishments, however there
are massive innocent people that was implicated and wrongly accused by the
government.
Filipinos have mixed opinions about the implementation of the old

justice system there are some people that claims that death penalty should
be brought back for life should be paid with life and the cruel and merciless
criminals should also be shown no mercy, while other people states that
there would always be innocent people that will be at stake.
Cause and Effects
Since Rodrigo Duterte was started to control or lessen the drug related
crimes through implementing “War on Drugs” it created massive deaths of
over thousands of Filipino, both the sinner and the innocent. Here, the
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S.Y. 2018-2019
president starts to talk about the death penalty. "It is time for us to fulfill
our mandate to protect our people. Tapos na 'yan. For so long we have to
act decisively on this contentious issue. Capital punishment is not only about
deterrence, it's also about retribution," he said. He also explained that the
essence of the country's penal code is retribution. "Our criminal system uses
the revised penal code. That is a law given to us by the Spaniards, the
original revised penal code, though it was translated into English. And those
two books, the definition of crimes and the penalties and everything, and the
thrust of that revised penal code, ladies and gentlemen, is the essence of
retribution. That is why you have penalty," Duterte said. According to
Duterte, instilling fear in criminals is the only way to stop them.
Under the current issue (March 2019) about a 16 year-old Christine

Lee Silawan, a gruesome murder case, Silawan’s body was found half-naked
in a vacant lot in Sitio Mahayahay, Barangay Bangkal in Lapu-Lapu City,
Cebu. Half of the teenager’s face was skinned to the skull and her body had
multiple stab wounds. Many Netizens sympathized on the victim and went
viral throughout all social media and also the news, at this point the
government is trying to restore the use of death penalty.
Also rape cases, different women are now stating that they are victims
of rape, throughout the social media it made a big issue, some are raped by
their own friends, family and ofcourse strangers that you will never know
when will appear. It is all around the social medias, again the netizens were
affected and stated their opinions about the issue, some say that it is about
time to control the women’s clothing and some say that it is the rapist that
should be accused and t]not the victim, because there are children that gets
raped and a perfectly clothed women that still get raped.
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S.Y. 2018-2019
Now the government committee hasn’t decided yet if they will restore
the death penalty in the Philippines but here are some effects that may
happen if they implement the certain penalty:
The effects of the death penalty can be divided into three main
groups: public safety, deterrence, and retribution. The death penalty is the
judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious
crime, most often first-degree murder. There could be both positive and
negative effects of death penalty, the crime rate could be lessen because the
criminals will think of what they will be doing and have a bigger chance to
stop committing the crime to save their lives, or they could hide even more
and forge innocent people to their wrongdoings.
Compare and contrast
There could be different outcomes if the government restore or not

restore the use of death penalty.
If death penalty will be restored, crimes will be lessen and if the

government used their position and power wrongly, the country will be at
stake of being brought down. However there is still a chance for the innocent
people to be wrongfully accused by the crime they did not commit.
If the government refused to take the risk in restoring the old justice
system, the crime rate will remain the same and the criminals will continue
to create devastating deaths to massive people.
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S.Y. 2018-2019
Problem Solution
I believe that the problem is not the justice system, it will always
depend on the people if they will obey the law and for the government if
they will use their position and power to improve and build a country with
prosperity and peace. Even if the president and laws change, the choice is
always within the people. If people only chose peace, the country would
have been better.
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The Pros and Cons of Death Penalty: San Ildefonso College

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