The death penalty is a “false hope” which doesn’t solve the problem of crime, according to the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines which is urging President Rodrigo Duterte and political parties to abandon plans to restore the death penalty in the country.
In a note sent to Agenzia Fides, Rodolfo Diamante, a lay Catholic and executive secretary of the commission for the prison ministry of the Episcopal Conference of the Philippines, said “capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to crime” and reintroducing it would be “an affront to human dignity”.
“We appeal to the President and our legislators not to resort to an alleged ‘rapid solution’ of the problem of crime, stopping to give people the false hope that this solution exists, which would be death penalty”, he said on the World Day against the Death Penalty, celebrated on 10th October.
“Death is never the answer. Death penalty is not the answer for violent crime, abortion is not the answer for unplanned pregnancies”, said Mr Diamond, noting that “the killings of drug dealers in the country are a farce for the efficiency in the fight against crime”.
While pledging to fight corruption, drugs and crime, Mr Diamond said Christians “are called to defend and proclaim the inviolability of the human person, who is the image of God”, remembering that “human life is intrinsically valuable”.
