JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Tuesday said it is up to the Congress to enact another death penalty law in reaction to the upsurge of violent crimes in the country.

Gonzalez told mediamen, however, that the killing of 10 employees of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and a customer in Cabuyao, Laguna, as well as the indiscriminate killing of several persons in Calamba, Laguna, still do not necessitate the reimposition of the death penalty.

He stressed that what is needed is efficient police and detective work so that would-be perpetrators could easily be tracked and arrested by police authorities.

“The series of incidents may not necessarily justify [the imposition of the death penalty] although it is allowed. As long as it is the policy of the President not to restore it, I will support her. But, it is up to [the] Congress if the death penalty under certain circumstances is valid…,” Gonzalez said.

He still believes that there is no upsurge of heinous crimes despite the two incidents. He added the proposal for the reimposition of capital punishment should be assessed and studied carefully.

“We have had the death penalty for several times and there have been no sufficient studies which would tell us that the imposition of the death penalty is really a deterrent [to crime],” he said.

He said the death penalty may bring fear to some criminals but it may not be the case for hardened criminals like those responsible in the RCBC murder-robbery.

Earlier, the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) urged the government to reinstate the death penalty law following the bloody RCBC heist where 10 persons where killed on May 16.

Republic Act (RA) 7659, or the Death Penalty Law, was passed during the term of former President Fidel Ramos as a result of the upsurge in heinous crimes. It identified 46 crimes as punishable by death.

RA 8177 mandated that a death sentence shall be carried out by lethal injection.

A total of seven persons were executed during former President Joseph Estrada’s term. Convicted rapist Leo Echegaray in 1999 was the first to be executed through lethal injection.

Estrada later issued a moratorium in deference to the celebration of the Jubilee Year and campaigns by the Roman Catholic Church and other groups opposed to capital punishment.

This was later extended by President Arroyo until the death penalty law was repealed two years ago.

NEDA workers want NBN papers bared

EMPLOYEES of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) are urging the agency’s top management to disclose the documents, including all correspondences, project-evaluation reports and board resolutions related to the controversial national broadband network (NBN) project.

THE principal suspect in the killing of eight people and the wounding of six others in Laguna on Monday was killed following a shootout with policemen who came to arrest him.

JUSTICE Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Tuesday said it is up to the Congress to enact another death penalty law in reaction to the upsurge of violent crimes in the country.

THE official death toll of Typhoon Cosme rose to 13 as the weather disturbance left the country.

The National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) said eight were killed in Ilocos, one in Central Luzon, three in Eastern Visayas and one in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

SUBIC BAY FREE PORT—Officials of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) had warned employees at the Hanjin shipyard here that malaria, a disease transmitted by mosquito bite, is prevalent at the Redondo Peninsula, the site of the shipbuilding project that now employs some 17,000 workers.

BUS operators on Tuesday denounced what they called government policies and orders that are “illegal, irregular and inimical to public interest.”

THE House Committee on Legislative Franchises has started deliberations on the bill granting a 25-year franchise to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to manage, operate, maintain and improve the country’s national power grid.