The death of Cyrish Magalang was a disturbing one. She was a Cum Laude at the University of Santo Tomas. She was returning from work when she was nabbed by unknown suspects.
Her lifeless body was later found, with 49 stab wounds, in a farm. Her face crushed by a hollow block.
Her death is among the tens or possible hundreds perpetrated daily in the Philippines. And we are not counting the unreported ones. Considering the poor state of this country, poverty and hard times are typical; Driving individuals and families alike to do terrible things for their own survival or their loved ones’.
Some resort to stealing, prostitution, fraud, corruption, murder, among other things. With it, crime rates have gone up.
It appears that the current system has been ineffective in answering these unhappy states of affairs. Those implicated in breaking the law would justify their acts as being done to put bread on the family table.
Minors have taken to the streets and engaging in acts of violence, some being conscious of their actions yet, to an extent, immune to prosecution as they are protected by the law itself.
Aggression exhibited by these minors at this stage of life could develop into something bigger when they come of age.
At this rate, what could be our future? The desperate inhabitants of this society have plummeted into a downward spiral.
For almost a decade, death penalty has been dormant, a topic best left ignored by the legislature. But with the widely-publicized death of Cyrish Magalang, talks of capital punishment have resurfaced as her family screams for blood from President Benigno Aquino III himself.
To put this into perspective, the rising crime rates could be attributed to the uneven economy, but it also could be due to the common preconception that the justice system is escapable, law enforcement is inept, and the punishments are a risk worth taking and possibly a relatively better option than either looking for alternatives or starve. That’s where the death penalty comes in.
Recently, the sentencing of capital punishment has been prohibited in the Philippines. It may be that law-breakers have lost their fear of the system and its punishments and somehow, as Magalang’s family might have come to realize, capital punishment would be once again a necessity to reinstate those fears and put them on a whole new level, an answer to the times.
In a quick recap, capital punishment has been in the islands since Spanish times. It was mostly carried out by firing squad or the “garrote”. Notable examples of Philippine martyrs to have been sentenced to death were Jose Rizal and the “Gomburza”.
When the Americans took over, the government started using electrocution as an execution method.
The Philippines retained the employment of capital punishment long after gaining full independence. Murder, rape, and treason were punishable by death.
After the deposition of Ferdinand Marcos, a new constitution was adopted, one which prohibited the death penalty.
In the early 90’s, President Fidel Ramos reintroduced the death penalty. Republic Act 7658, the new death penalty law, was put into effect.
Two years later, Republic Act 8177 mandates that a death sentence shall be carried out by lethal injection.
Almost a decade later, under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the death penalty was once again outlawed through the introduction of Republic Act 9346.
But during the period wherein capital punishment was in effect between Ramos and Arroyo, seven people have been executed by lethal injection.
If we were to approve of the death penalty, it would reduce crime rates, or so we would hope.
It could also, however, backfire. Law-breakers would instead devote more of their resources to the secrecy of their crimes. They might instead hone their evasion skills.
Then again, with the approval of capital punishment, they would have no choice but to reconsider their options and resort to a more peaceful way of living.
Its approval would cause advocates of human rights to go up in uproar. Implications are extensive. But when someone commits a grievous crime, aware of the consequences, is it still pardonable?
Cyrish Magalang’s death was tragic. Somehow reminiscent of murders in the past, the Sarmenta-Gomez case, for instance.
It was a twin murder case wherein the victims, Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez, like Magalang, were students.
The Sarmenta-Gomez case was a catalyst to the reintroduction of the death penalty. Who can say that history would repeat itself?
-Jared Cagas
( DSPC 2011,1012 Feature
Writing, 1st Place)
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