Jesus M Elbinias
IT may not be a political move of the Administration’s policy to stay the execution of all death row convicts and commute their sentences to life imprisonment, but a moral act of President Arroyo to show how she values life according to Manila Rep. Rodolfo C. Bacani, a brother of Bishop Teodoro Bacani. As Manila Mayor Lito Atienza said, "sending a person to die by lethal injection goes against the tenets of a Christian society and the state which recognizes every person’s right to life." But then, despite more than a decade after enactment of the death penalty law, crime and criminals continue to proliferate. I agree with the mayor that effective delivery of justice, and also implementation of our whole criminal justice system may solve the problem.
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While it is true, as Bacani said that "it is a God-given life and nobody has been given the right to take one’s life as provided for in the Scriptures," then why should convicts who took the lives of other persons be permitted to live while they have taken away the God-given lives of the victims. If a Christian society such as ours has the tenets of protecting a person’s God-given life and that no person in such Christian society has the right to take another person’s life, then there must me something that our Christian Church has failed to drive into its teachings, such as tenets regarding the God-given life and anyone having no right to take another’s life. The Church should not advocate repeal of the death penalty law, which in effect affirms the convicts’ right to take their victims’ lives.
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The news may not be completely reported about Supreme Court Associate Justice Leonardo A. Quisumbing being the guest of honor and speaker during the commencement rites of the College of Business Administration of the Angeles University Foundation (AUF) yesterday. The AUF Chancellor Dr. Emmanuel Y. Angeles had announced that Justice Quisumbing would be – and presumably – had by today already been conferred the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, in recognition of his exemplary performance as public servant, jurist, educator, and administrator. Why was the commencement that day only for AUF College of Business Administration, without its College of Law rites? With Quisumbing’s high credentials, the Law rites should not have been missed. Law is Law, is’nt it?
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United Opposition (UNO) President Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay was one of the most competent and experienced trial lawyers among many of them I have seen during his appearances in my court when I was a trial court judge in Makati City. I was perceived then as a very strict judge. When he was appointed OIC Makati Mayor by Cory Aquino after ouster of the late President Marcos, the first thing he did in my court upon assuming his position was to ask me to lecture to all the staff employees of his office on honesty. I could not decline because of his very persuasive logic. But recently, he did not have the persuasiveness that he had before. This was seen in the matter of exposing the contents of the Mayuga Report, which Binay said Malacañang need not disclose in full because the public already knows the truth on fraud in the May 2004 elections.
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And as farther quoted by the media: "Binay said the controversial wiretapped conversation had been the reason why people no longer believe in the President. ‘Logic dictates that if one is not guilty of anything then there is nothing to hide and if there is nothing to hide then there should be full public disclosure.’ But this is not the case with the Mayuga report and understandably and expectedly so."
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