Abolition of the Death Penalty: An Analysis of Policy Reform Under the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Administration

Abstract

The abolition of the death penalty in the Philippines raised significant questions as to what influenced the administration to abolish a law that was rarely applied in the country and in record speed inconsistent with the almost always deadlocking character of the Houses of the Philippine legislature. With the abolition law signed on the eve of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's departure for a visit to the Pope in Rome and Spain, speculations arose that the abolition of the death penalty was a move to get the support of the Catholic Church and to gain favors from the Spanish Government. This research investigates the underlying factors that affected the government's decision to abolish the death penalty. It assesses the other policies of the government related to the death penalty and human rights and in doing so proved that the state policy on human rights is not the policy of life heralded in the abolition of the death penalty, but rather a policy of death demonstrated by the rapidly growing cases of extrajudicial executions embodied in the government's all-out war policy against the so-called Communist insurgency.