The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC)...

The Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) said that Church leaders in the Philippines should not interfere in the anticipated lifting of the moratorium on judicial executions. VACC founding chair Dante Jimenez said the response of President Macapagal-Arroyo to the Church's anti-death penalty crusade would indicate what her plans were for 2004. The President declared a moratorium on judicial executions in 2002 to pacify the anti-death penalty lobbyists led by Church officials. VACC, which has 5,000 members, said the President's recent pronouncement to impose capital punishment on those involved in drug dealing and trafficking, was "a very good decision... (and) a very effective way to deter the commission of heinous crimes." Jimenez also proposed that the law be amended to impose capital punishment on coup plotters.