24/09/02

The Philippine Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday a petition by human  rights lawyers to stop the execution of 30 convicts while Congress debates a  proposal to abolish capital punishment.

The high tribunal said it had ruled that the death penalty was constitutional and the lawyers belonging to the Free Legal Assistance Group have no recourse but to seek presidential action for a stay of the executions.

Five of the executions, all by injection, are scheduled for this year.

This ruling means any delay in the executions now rests entirely on the president, court spokesman Ishmail Khan said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo postponed the execution of three rape convicts in August and this month to study the possible grant of executive clemency and as a show of respect to influential Manila archbishop Cardinal Jaime Sin, who celebrated his birthday last month.

Sin, who co-led massive protests last year that installed Arroyo to the presidency, opposes capital punishment.

The lawyers' group asked the Supreme Court last month to halt six scheduled executions and prevent trial judges from setting execution dates for 24 other prisoners whose death sentences have been upheld by the court while Congress studies whether to repeal the death penalty law.

The House and Senate are deliberating bills seeking to replace capital punishment with life imprisonment.

Lawmakers said there was a growing chance that both chambers would approve the bills.

Maria Socorro Diokno, secretary-general of FLAG, said the lawyers' group has also petitioned the U.N. human rights committee to ask the Philippine government to halt the executions and investigate claims by some death-row inmates that their rights were violated by authorities.

Several inmates have raised a number of allegations, including illegal arrests and inadequate legal representation, Diokno said.

  The death penalty, abolished in 1987, was restored in 1994 for <heinous>  crimes such as rape, kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking. Seven convicts were executed in 1999 and 2000.

More than 1,700 people have been sentenced to death since 1994. At least five convicts are awaiting execution this year, including two scheduled for next month.

  Arroyo suspended the death penalty after she took office in January 2001 but lifted the moratorium last October, saying the freeze had emboldened criminals, particularly kidnap-for-ransom gangs.

No executions have occurred since the moratorium was lifted.

 Filipinos are divided over the issue,with pro-death penalty groups saying capital punishment would deter crimes.

Opponents, led by the predominant Roman Catholic church, said there was no evidence of that, and pointed to widespread crimes in the Philippines years after capital punishment was reimposed.