Using the view of 'politics as power' (page 9 of Heywood's book on Politics) as framework, justify why the death penalty should not be reinstated in the Philippines.

 

The plummeting human rights situation in the Philippines got even worse as the government  began considering bills to reinstate the death penalty.

For years, the Philippines put people to death, particularly in cases of so-called heinous crimes. But Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, under pressure from the Catholic Church, abolished the death penalty in 2006. Human Rights Watch opposes the death penalty in all circumstances because it is inherently cruel and irreversible.

Now that the present government's overwhelming majority in Congress and continuing efforts to promote its campaign against illegal drugs means the justice committee is likely to support death penalty bills. President Rodrigo Duterte's "war on drugs" has resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 persons at the hands of the Philippine National Police and thousands more by unidentified gunmen. Accountability for these police killings, including those that victimized children, is practically nonexistent.

The death penalty should not be reinstated in the Philippines' criminal justice system as it  carries a manifest risk of miscarriages of justice. No criminal justice system in the world is immune from errors and that of the Philippines is no exception. A single error that culminates, irrevocably, in the execution of an innocent person would represent a shocking failure of justice-in effect, a judicial murder. The risk of judicial error is sharply increased if torture or ill-treatment of criminal suspects is used to extract confessions. Such grave violations of human rights are prohibited by the Philippine Constitution and by the key international human rights treaties to which the Philippines is a party.

Illegal methods often used in the past to secure convictions of political suspects continue to be used against criminal suspects today. As well as torture and ill-treatment warrantless arrests, the planting of evidence, and the intimidation of witnesses and alleged accomplices appear to remain part of police investigative practice-and has sharply increased the risk that the innocent may indeed be executed. The current rapid rate of death sentences in the Philippines is taking place within a context of deep-rooted public doubts over the equity, impartiality and effectiveness of the overall judicial system. These doubts are fuelled by the perception that those with influence or wealth are at times able to enjoy impunity-literally exemption from punishment. 

Similarly the fact that the overwhelming majority of those on death row come from disadvantaged sectors of society and-because of economic deprivation, lack of educational attainments or low social status-are among those least able to secure effective legal counsel, suggests that in practice not all Filipinos are equal before the law, and that the death penalty is being applied disproportionately against members of more disadvantaged sectors of society.