Lawyer and political analyst Emil P

Lawyer and political analyst Emil P. Jurado commented on the Manila Standard:
"I believe it's high time for the death penalty law to be abolished. Insofar, as the death penalty is concerned, statistics show that it hasn't really deterred the commission of heinous crimes, like drug-trafficking and pushing, kidnapping-for-ransom, robbery with homicide, and others. We have flirted with the death penalty through lethal injection but has it prevented or deterred the commission of heinous crimes? The answer is NO.
"Thus, it's high time for Congress to rethink the death penalty, especially in a Catholic country like the Philippines. We abolished it before, then enacted a law on death penalty again. It's time we, as a Catholic country, stopped the "culture of death" prevailing worldwide where human life is considered dispensable.
"For one thing, every human being, no matter what crime he has committed, has a right to life. We should respect that. But, most importantly, the death penalty law has not achieved the purpose for which it was enacted."