While it was said that no one has the right to take another person’s life, there are exceptions. Because just like anything else in this world, this is subject to the time and place, as well as the persons involved. At a time when you have to defend yourself, killing somebody threatening your very life would be justified. In times of war, there would be no law to speak of. Everything would be fair game. This is the sad reality although there are international agreements to ameliorate the cruel and inhuman conditions of war.
So should we have the death penalty? We cannot support it. If a druglord is captured and tried, then a penalty of death is not justified. We don’t like to belabor the arguments, but the fact remains that he is a human being like us. It is not ours to decide whether his God given life must end. There might even be a chance he could reform or be reformed and become an asset to society. It would be a different story were he shot in an encounter where law enforcers had to defend themselves.
The government therefore should work on, and invest in, the reformation process of addicts and dealers, and there should be a way for drug lords who preyed on the helpless and innocent to pay for their crimes. Take for instance is a case in a remote town in the Cordillera. A former barangay captain was able to make addicts of elderlies there by selling to them shabu as medicine for their gout or arthritis. Consequently, they had to shell out whatever little money they had to get the short lived relief they always wanted. For the luckier ones who had children working abroad, a big part of their “foreign aid” was being used for that purpose. And God knows how much sacrifices were being endured by those children “foreign aiders” to keep the cash coming.
What happened to that drug dealer? He got shot one early morning in his home right after his wife left for a public office where she worked. But he could have been made to reform or be reformed. He was receptive to it and was being aided by his wife.
At any rate, our salute to those who opposed the death penalty.
As to the “Operation Double Reloaded,” it is a welcome relief the invitation to the religious people (priests, pastors, bishops, etc.) to participate in the process. Perhaps the reported abuses can be avoided and the citizenry can be assured our people are not being needlessly massacred.**