PETALING JAYA: Ex-Philippine president Gloria Arroyo said Malaysia's move to abolish the mandatory death penalty could pave the way for full abolition.
The Abolition of Mandatory Death Penalty Act 2023 was passed by parliament in April 2023 and came into force on July 4 that year, giving judges discretion to impose the death penalty or an alternative prison term for offences previously subject to mandatory capital punishment.
Arroyo said gradual reforms were important to achieving full abolition and ensuring the changes could be sustained.
Replacing death sentences with other penalties, imposing a moratorium on executions and abolishing the mandatory death penalty could lay the groundwork for wider reform, she said.
"First, the sequence of reforms matters. Replacing death sentences with other penalties, a moratorium and the abolition of the mandatory death penalty, as Malaysia has so courageously done, can change the landscape and pave the way for the full abolition of the death penalty," she said.
Arroyo, a commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty, said the Philippines' experience showed that abolition required strong evidence, political leadership and broad support.
The Philippines abolished the death penalty under its 1987 Constitution, reinstated it in 1993 and abolished it again in 2006, during Arroyo's presidency from 2001 to 2010.
Evidence of judicial errors was among the main factors behind abolition. In the 2004 case of People v. Mateo, the Philippine Supreme Court reported that only 230 of 907 death sentences reviewed since 1993 were upheld, while 651 were modified or overturned, including 65 acquittals.
"When a system makes mistakes that frequently, while an execution cannot be undone, the argument for the death penalty becomes untenable," she said.
A 2004 study by the Free Legal Assistance Group of 1,121 death row inmates found that 73 per cent were poor, while less than one per cent came from the upper class.
In April 2006, Arroyo commuted the death sentences of more than 1,000 prisoners to life imprisonment. The move was followed by cross-party cooperation in Congress, leading to the signing of Republic Act No. 9346, which prohibits the death penalty, on June 24, 2006.
The Philippines joined the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 2007 to strengthen safeguards against reinstatement.
Arroyo warned that abolition was not necessarily permanent, as public fear of crime and political pressure could lead to the death penalty being reintroduced. Efforts to reinstate it in the Philippines continued, particularly for drug offences. A bill passed by the House of Representatives in 2017 was not pursued in the Senate.
She said abolition should be accompanied by a justice system trusted by the public, including effective police enforcement, fair courts and support for crime victims.
"The death penalty does not make our societies safer, but makes them less just," she said.
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