A divided Philippine Supreme Court suspended tomorrow's executions of two kidnappers until the end of next month, narrowly blocking President Gloria Maca-pagal Arroyo's order of the first use of capital punishment in four years.
Ruling 7-6 yesterday, the justices said they needed more time to consider whether claims of new evidence would warrant a fresh trial for Roberto Lara and Roderick Licayan.
"Pending resolution of this incident," the court said, it was freezing -- for 30 days -- the executions by lethal injection that had been set for 3pm tomorrow.
Arroyo, who is seeking a fresh term in elections on May 10, had said only a stay by the Supreme Court would stop her from pushing through with the first executions since the government of her ousted predecessor, Joseph Estrada, imposed a ban in 2000.
"We're very happy," Benilda Lara told reporters at Bilibid prison south of Manila as she put her arms around her son's two young children. "God has answered our prayers."
Presidential spokesman Ricardo Saludo said Arroyo had halted all preparations for the executions after the court ruling.
"The president maintains she is against the death penalty but has lifted the ban as a sign that her government is serious about battling crime," Saludo told reporters.
Arroyo, who ordered the executions last month after a wave of kidnappings for ransom, had vowed to reimpose the moratorium after Lara and Licayan were put to death.
"It's not easy for me to make this decision because I am a pro-life president, but there are unusual circumstances," Arroyo told reporters last weekend.
Critics have accused Arroyo of swapping the lives of the two convicts for votes, particularly from the tiny but influential ethnic Chinese community that suffers most of the abductions.
Dozens of human rights groups protested outside the Supreme Court building this week, urging the judges to stop the execution and reopen the cases of Lara and Licayan.
The acting director of Bilibid prison, Reinerio Albano, said he felt "relieved" the two convicts had won the brief reprieve.
"It's no joke because it involves human lives," he told reporters, adding Lara and Licayan would be returned to their cells on death row from a pre-execution isolation area.
But not everyone was happy with the suspension.
"The reopening of cases only prolongs the agony of victims," said Dante Jimenez, founder of an anti-crime support group.
"We respect the decision of the Supreme Court. However, let this not be a precedent that all cases of heinous crimes may be reinvestigated."
The executions have become an emotional issue in the run-up to May's election, alienating Arroyo from former political allies including the powerful Roman Catholic church.
"If anything, it only highlighted her opportunism and politics of expediency," Etta Rosales, a member of the House of Representatives, said on Tuesday.
There are more than 1,000 people on death row, including 22 foreigners convicted of drug trafficking.
PRECARIOUS RELATIONS: Commentators in Saudi Arabia accuse the UAE of growing too bold, backing forces at odds with Saudi interests in various conflicts A Saudi Arabian media campaign targeting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has deepened the Gulf’s worst row in years, stoking fears of a damaging fall-out in the financial heart of the Middle East. Fiery accusations of rights abuses and betrayal have circulated for weeks in state-run and social media after a brief conflict in Yemen, where Saudi airstrikes quelled an offensive by UAE-backed separatists. The United Arab Emirates is “investing in chaos and supporting secessionists” from Libya to Yemen and the Horn of Africa, Saudi Arabia’s al-Ekhbariya TV charged in a report this week. Such invective has been unheard of
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned Canada that if it concludes a trade deal with China, he would impose a 100 percent tariff on all goods coming over the border. Relations between the US and its northern neighbor have been rocky since Trump returned to the White House a year ago, with spats over trade and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney decrying a “rupture” in the US-led global order. During a visit to Beijing earlier this month, Carney hailed a “new strategic partnership” with China that resulted in a “preliminary, but landmark trade agreement” to reduce tariffs — but
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
RSS