As promised in his campaign, president-elect Rodrigo Duterte has begun mobilizing congressional support for the restoration of capital punishment. With his “super majority” in place in the House of Representatives and his new allies also in control in the Senate, any public opposition to the plan is likely to be set aside and the death penalty may soon be back, with the only question to be settled being the mode of execution.
Nations approve state-sponsored executions not just to eliminate threats to society but also as a crime deterrent. Predominantly Catholic Philippines abolished capital punishment, but the landslide victory of Duterte is just the latest indication of public support for extrajudicial methods of law enforcement.
This support can be attributed mainly to the weakness, corruption and inefficiency of the criminal justice system. This weakness will not be corrected by bringing back the death penalty. Restoring capital punishment must be backed by structural changes to strengthen the rule of law.
Law enforcement agencies must be purged of corruption and given more resources and skills training so that crimes are solved and impunity does not prevail. The same must be done with the prosecution service.
The judiciary must clean up its act. This is beyond the jurisdiction of the executive, but it is possible to inspire better performance from the judiciary by improving compensation for judges, for example, and improving courtroom and prosecution facilities. The vetting process for magistrates must be as depoliticized as possible; the current system of appointments in the judiciary is easily and routinely undermined by politicians and religious groups.
A database can be set up to monitor the progress of court cases so that judges with the slowest adjudication rates or with the most number of temporary restraining orders can be easily identified. Such measures lack the shock value of state executions, but it takes more than a fear of a double hanging to deter criminality.
In case capital punishment is restored, improving the efficiency of the judiciary is also crucial to avoid any miscarriage of justice that would send an innocent person to the gallows. There are valid observations that in the final years before capital punishment was abolished, only poor convicts who could not afford good legal advice were the ones executed. The judiciary has long cried out for reforms; this becomes more urgent with the planned revival of the death penalty.