POSITION PAPER

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It’s been 14 years now, when the Death Penalty was abolished by Ex-President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo, but the issue was still a hot topic for other people. Death Penalty is a
punishment of execution for those people who committed heinous crimes. Death Penalty
is a
serious issue in our country but it’s common for others. It was been an issue again when
President Duterte said that he could bring back the Death Penalty for drug traffickers,
but many people didn’t agree to it.

Many people don’t agree with Death Penalty because of Human Rights. Well, Death
Penalty is not just about controlling crime rates in our country, it’s also about how the
people discipline their self to prevent doing those crime. Some people today don’t have
discipline and self-control, you have to scare them first before realizing that they need to
have a new life. For those who didn’t agree thinking that Death Penalty is inhumane,
how about those victims of some suspects who experience that kind of inhumane too?
Sometimes those victims can’t have the justice that they needed.

Death Penalty is one of the first forms of punishments in the world. The first ever
established death penalty law date as far as Eighteenth Century BCE in the code of King
Hammurabi of Babylon. In the Philippines, the earliest record of death penalty was
during the Spanish Era. Death Penalty was primarily used against the Nationalist
Filipinos who build resistance against the American Colonizers. The Philippines was the
first country in Asia to abolish death penalty in all crimes then replaced by reclusion
perpetua or life imprisonment. Fidel V. Ramos was forced to reinstate death penalty as
punishment for capital crimes due to heinous crimes committed in his time. It is also in
this time that Republic Act No.8177 was passed.

Many people believe that death penalty was implemented just to decrease crime rates.
Well, that’s the first and common reason of it but there are other reasons why
government implemented it. As you can see today, jails are overcrowded and the
government can’t maintain the prison population. Many inmates can’t sleep, they are
getting sick and lack of food supply. The second, it stops the threat of an escape. We all
know that some prisoners can outsmarted those police or there is a corrupt police, they
can escape and continue doing a crime. It deters bad people to commit heinous crimes.
Some people said that’s not effective, crime rate doesn’t decrease because some people
didn’t have a knowledge about death penalty thinks that if you done a crime like murder
you’ll be in a death row right away. No it’s not, there is a process before the government
put you into the death row.

The issue of Death Penalty is very common issue and many debated about that. The
other side said that Death Penalty is unethical and it’s not justice but we seek
vengeance. My side for it is not about vengeance, it’s about your safety or our safety. If
that criminal committed a lot of crime who’s going to stop them? Where’s the human
rights for the people who was killed by the criminal? Are we still going to apply human
rights if the victim was brutally killed?
Not all the criminals can change. Human rights is not always right for me.

To summarize, Death Penalty is not just about controlling crime rates in our country, it
helps to discipline the people to prevent doing a crime. Death Penalty can stops threats
and it can deters people to commit heinous crimes. Criminals today are not afraid to do
a crime because in their mind it’s just a life imprisonment. Death penalty is against
human’s right yet we must think the positive or the good effects of it.

Before implementing this Death Penalty, they should conduct a study about it and
informed people about it, how it’s done and the processes of it. We have a corrupt
officials, government should take an action of it. The benefits of this death penalty is the
safety of the people in our country, a safety that they deserve.

If Death Penalty was implemented, the investigators and police should study the case
very well so there’s no innocent people will get killed. Corrupted officials and police
should be the one who needs some punishment. The government should not give
powers to other officials to stop unfair treatment or inhumane treatment. Give one
chance to those criminals to have a new life but if they did another crime they will go to
a process.
Sites:
https://connectusfund.org/16-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-the-death-penalty-and-
capitalpunishment
https://www.academia.edu/33881272/position_paper_in_death_penalty
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/history-of-the-death-penalty/early-history-of-
thedeath-penalty
https://www.academia.edu/8644703/Background_History_of_Death_Penalty
https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/10297-philippines-duterte-wants-the-death-penalty-back