The Death Penalty is Being Implemented
by Fr Shay Cullen
The Killing of Abel, Nicolas of Verdun, 1181
Augustinian Monastery, Klosterneuburg, Austria [Web Gallery of Art]
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Capiz Congressman Fredenil Castro want to bring back the death penalty in the Philippines as a deterrent to crime. It can be said that the death penalty is already effectively and practically in force daily. As many as ten suspects are killed daily in the war on illegal drugs.
Some are killed in what is said to be police shoot-outs. Others are the work of vigilante death squads. They bind the hands and feet of the victims, gag them with tape and shoot them and leave them in a public place with a crude sign saying, ‘I am a pusher’ or a similar message.
Some of those killed are victims of mistaken identity; others are victims of criminals who kill and use the signboard to forestall any investigation. With the sign left on the body, it is presumed that the victim is a drug pusher. It is another case of a false accusation, a wrongful killing.
The suspects are lined up on lists prepared by the local barangay officials and given to the police. This denunciation of one’s neighbors by those elected to protect their rights is a contradiction. In the gated communities of the rich, the officials are not cooperating with the police demands for a list of suspects. Many end up dead and most of them are poor, small-time ‘suspected’ drug users. The big drug lords have yet to fall.
Full post here.