Lopez, Jasmine B.

12 HUMSS Joaquin

Laws in Exchange for Life

Do laws really protect us? Or is this just another way of killing the peace and
protection we strive to have? Do laws really aim for humanity? Or this is just a
another term for what we called "inequality?". Can death change our world?
Obviously, No. A tooth for a tooth, and eye for an eye would never be fit in easing
the crime in our world. Crimes, and death would never be the solution for minimizing
the crime incidents in our chaotic world. Death could only add problems, and
difficulties to our world. Even though criminals have done horrible, and wrong things,
they still deserve a second chance for a change, and of course freedom to live and
enjoy their lives. But other people, and even our law view criminals as a trash and a
rotten food who deserve to be in the grave. That's why they keep o protesting to
legalize the death penalty. Because they strongly believe that this is the only way to
minimize and finally end the crime in our world. But should the lives be an exchange
for the wrong doings they have done? Is that really necessary to kill a person to
achieve the freedom and safety that we citizens must have?

According to the Bureau or Justice Statistics (BJS), the death penalty or also
called as "capital punishment" is a process of sentencing convicted offenders to
death in return for the serious crimes they have done. Obviously it is a law, where
criminals are ruled by the state or congress to "death" in exchange for their wrong
actions. During the term of former Philippine President Fidel Tamos, this death
penalty was existed, and continue to run during his term. But this perception and rule
of him didn't work as he expected. The crimes that he wanted to end continuously to
rise, during the existence of death penalty. Then after his term, a new leader leads
the country. Which is former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, during her term,
death penalty was finally ended and abolished on June 24, 2006 (Rappler.com).
Death execution doesn't change anything in our world, it just violates the rights of
every individual including criminals to live. It is based on Article III of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which existed on December 10, 1948.
According to this fair article, "Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security". By
this we can foresee that all of us even criminals have the rights to live, to be free,
and to have the security or protection, because they are humans. They also have the
rights to live, and enjoy their live until God take it. But they would never experience it
if law continue to prohibit them in living, and changing their lives. By this rule, we can
see that law are the one who violates his own rule, not us humans. Also, according
to the Article VI of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR),
"Every human being has inherent to life. This shall be protected by law, no one shall
arbitrarily deprived his life" By this article we can clearly know, and conclude that
implementing death penalty only violates the human rights of every offenders. We
should keep in our minds that law should be the one who protects our rights, not the
one who hurts us. In addition, Amnesty International recorded plenty of cases of
wrong ruling and execution among criminals. Mostly, this criminals are proven
innocent but they are sentenced to death. Also, a lot of criminals are convicted and
undergo on unfair trials, wrong gather of evidences that turns into sentencing them to
death as a punishment. That is happening to our country right now. This death
penalty is a cruel law, and abusive. This law is unfair, and must be ended by the law
for the sake of every citizen whether it is innocent or criminals.

Therefore, this death penalty must not be legalized anymore. Not because
other countries implement it, it doesn't mean that we should do it. This is not a
competition, this is a matter of life and justice. We should protect and cherish each
other's lives, and offer our help to others, for them to change. Everyone can change
for their own good, we just need to trust and believe them. They have the freedom to
do it, and even improve themselves. We are just humans, we do wrong things but we
don't have the rights to take the life of other's as a exchange of the wrong actions
they have done, only God can do that. This death penalty only bring a lot of
negativity, and difficulties in our world. It only makes the world complicated, and
dangerous to live in. Criminals are still humans who still need to treat right. This
death penalty would never be a solution in ending the crime rates in our world, I
know that there are still a lot of possible ways in ending the crimes happening, but
not the life of others. The statements above are enough reason for us to say that
death penalty is unacceptable and must not be legalized anymore. Laws must
protect us humans, laws should be fair, equal and justifiable. This laws should be the
protector of it's citizens, not the enemy nor killer of them. Death penalty must be end,
life of its citizens must be kept.
Maida Monica Andaya
12HUMSS-Joaquin

RETURNING VIOLENCE BY ANOTHER VIOLENCE MULTIPLIES THE

VIOLENCE.

The law is made to protect people, then why does it promote violence and
killings? Does it really protect people or does it kill us, people? On November
20,2007, Death penalty in the Philippines was abolished. It was the right thing to do,
and it should not be legalised again. Why? because we are living in a modern
generation wherein a lot of people are open-minded and more aware of the different
issues we are encountering. Solving a mistake by another multiplies the mistake.
Everyone is given a right to live by our law, so law should protect people and not kill
them.

There are plenty of reasons why the death penalty should not be legalised.
Firstly, it is because the death penalty is unethical and morality wrong. It violates
human rights, which is their right to live. Having the right to live is the most basic
right of a human. It was given to all not just by our law, but also by our creator which
is God. Amnesty international holds that the death penalty breaches human rights, in
particular the right to life and the right to live free from torture, cruel, inhuman,
degrading treatment or punishment. Both rights are protected under the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted by the UN in 1948. The main purpose
of law in our life is to protect us from any harm and violence, so making a law that
kills people will lose its purpose and image that the law protects people and people
will lose trust and respect to our law because of implementing a law that violates the
morality and the rights of the humans which are the most beneficial of the w

Death penalty is also anti-poor which makes the reason for not legalising the
death penalty even stronger. If you are poor, the chances of being sentenced to
death are higher than if you are rich. Poor people are more likely to be killed or
executed from the death penalty than wealthy murderers. In fact, over 99% of the
people on death row are unfortunate people. According to one U.S appeals court
judge, persons of all income levels commit murder, but poor people are primary
recipients of the death penalty. Aside from that, a lot of studies have revealed that
those facing execution are mostly from the poor community. In fact, 63 percent or the
national survey on the public reception on the death penalty that was conducted in
2018, shows that they agreed that most people on death row are poor and cannot
afford a good lawyer.

Death penalty is also racial bias. The colour of a defendant and victims skin
plays an unacceptable role in deciding who receives the death penalty. People of
colour have accounted for a disproportionate 43% of total executions since 1976 and
55% of those currently awaiting execution. The supreme court ruled the death
penalty in most of the country between 1976 and 2005, because of racial
discrimination. 86% of white victims were killed by white(14% by other races) while
94% if black victims were killed by blacks(6% by other races). Young black men are
fifteen times as likely to be murdered as young white men. So given this information,
when those under death sentence are examined more closely, it turns out that race
is a decisive factor after all.

Death penalty will just lead to more consequences. The desire of punishing
people and reducing criminals will only lead to the risk of executing more innocent
people in any justice system. This will also just spread a lot more evilness and
injustice to the world. Not all criminals or prisoners are evil, some of them are
innocent, and the death penalty will just give them another cruelty. A lot of prisoners
have a chance to change and regret all the things they did wrong. Death penalty will
be effective if there is no bias, racial and poor discrimination, but it still can't deny the
fact that it violates human rights. We are all more than the worst thing we’ve ever
done; because all human beings are capable of change. If our criminal justice
system is to change, it should be designed not just to punish, but to rehabilitate
those who have committed crimes. We have the capacity to hold people accountable
and separate dangerous people from society without foreclosing opportunity. We can
give justice to victims without promoting any violence or disregard the main purpose
of law in our life which is protection to any harm and evil works. We can have an
amazing world if we have a good justice system that is equal and fair for all the
victims and human beings.