Senators seeking the repeal of the Death Penalty Law...

Senators seeking the repeal of the Death Penalty Law denied the bill they filed was meant to benefit jailed ex-President Joseph Estrada, under trial for plunder.
Church leaders, led by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, threw their support behind the senators' move, saying they did not see it as an attempt to save Estrada's neck.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr said the accusation made by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption chairman Dante Jimenez was "unfair and preposterous."
"We initiated this bill long before any charge was conceived to be filed against Mr. Estrada," said Pimentel.
Sen. Ralph Recto, who co-authored the bill, chided critics for reading too much into the pro-life measure. He said he agreed to co-author the bill because he believed that the Death Penalty Law has failed as an effective crime deterrent.
"The certainty of arrest and conviction is a better deterrent to the commission of crimes than the threat of being executed," he said.
In separate statements, Sin and Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said they wanted criminals punished but not put to death.
"I support wholeheartedly the move to abolish the death penalty. I am very happy to join our senators in this humanitarian step for the sake of our men and women in death row," said Sin, one of Estrada's strongest critics.
Sin said: "The death penalty law is not a deterrent to crime. If we want to prevent crime, we must restore the confidence of our people in the peace and order personnel."
Quevedo said the bishops believe that "justice (should) be given due course, but without resorting to capital punishment."
The CBCP's Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC) expressed a similar view, saying justice ranks high in the "hierarchy of values" of the Catholic Church.
The Coalition Against Death Penalty (CADP) headed by Fr. Silvino L. Borres Jr. said "the true deterrent to crime is not capital punishment but the certitude of arrest, prosecution and conviction of the criminals."