Reacting to public anger over a wave of kidnappings, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo lifted a moratorium on the death penalty yesterday, opening the way for executions to resume next month.
The move follows a series of kidnappings targeting the ethnic Chinese community that have added to the perception that Arroyo's government is failing to curb rampant crime.
PHOTO: EPA
It also risks alienating her supporters within the powerful Roman Catholic Church ahead of elections next May.
"I shall no longer stand in the way of executions scheduled by the courts for January 2004," Arroyo said in a statement.
"Much as I am averse, as a matter of moral principle, to the taking of human lives in this manner, the president must yield to the higher public interest when dictated by extraordinary circumstances," she said.
The decision to lift the moratorium she imposed in October last year comes only days after Arroyo rejected calls from the Filipino-Chinese community to reimpose capital punishment, saying an effective criminal justice system was the key to fighting crime.
The recent kidnapping spree came to public attention on Nov. 18 when the body of a Chinese-Filipino executive with Coca-Cola Export Corp, Betty Sy, was found wrapped in a blanket and garbage bag in a Manila suburb.
Three days later, a 10-year-old girl was abducted outside her school in Manila. Earlier this week, armed kidnappers snatched a two-year-old ethnic Chinese boy on his way to a Manila nursery school. The girl was later freed after her family paid a ransom.
Leaders of the Chinese community, which makes up just 1 percent of the 82 million population but is prominent in the business world, have said rogue members of the security forces are involved and criticized the government's response as ineffective.
They say many kidnappings go unreported because families do not trust the police.
"I think the Chinese-Filipino community will welcome the move," said Joaquin Sy, head of a Chinese community group.
"The criminals -- the kidnappers, bank robbers -- are more brazen now, so the state should adopt tougher measures," he said.
Arroyo has wavered over her support for the death penalty because of her strong links to the Catholic Church. But the death penalty moratorium has risked making her seem soft on crime in the run-up to next year's election as she trails behind several rivals in early opinion polls.
A day rarely goes by without a new gruesome crime reported in newspapers and fresh speculation that criminal activity is on the rise as politicians try to build up their campaign war chests.
The Philippine Star reported yesterday that police had detained two men for the rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl. The shocking case only made it onto page 20.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants with tuberculosis (TB) that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas, to Pakistani sweets. The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 4,000kg elephants. However, it has taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they
RSS