THE PHILIPPINES. BAN ON DEATH PENALTY STAYS BUT NOT FOR DRUGS AND KIDNAPPING

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said the moratorium on the implementation of death penalty through lethal injection would stay indefinitely, except for convicted kidnappers and drug traffickers, in order to strike fear among criminal syndicates victimizing innocent individuals. Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye made the clarification after Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced that the President was poised to grant today a 90-day reprieve to 14 prisoners sentenced to death for rape. 
"It has not changed. The President would like to impose the death penalty, especially on kidnapping and drug-related cases. But for other (cases), the President prefers to be lenient," he said of the state-imposed moratorium on execution among Death Row convicts.
The clamor for the death penalty resurfaced anew after some anti-crime groups expressed alarm over the audacity of criminal syndicates and terrorist groups in the country tagged in the series of bomb attacks in major cities in the country. "That’s a matter of policy of the President, and therefore, depending on prevailing situation, the President should be able to make key decisions. But for the moment, the President has not considered lifting the moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty," Ermita added.