Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has lifted a moratorium on the death penalty following an unprecedented 156 kidnap-for-ransom cases this year targeting ethnic Chinese.
The ethnic Chinese, known as Chinoys, comprise about 3 percent of the country’s population but possess at least half of its private wealth.
Shortly after Arroyo’s announcement, the government clarified that capital punishment would be used only for convicted kidnappers. A Justice Department official said the first man to be executed would be a convicted kidnapper scheduled to die at the end of January.
Arroyo imposed a moratorium on capital punishment after taking office in January 2001. Bowing to public pressure later that year, she said convicted kidnappers could be put to death, but there have been no executions. Arroyo announced Friday that she would no longer stop executions, according to The Associated Press.
Bringing back death by lethal injection was seen in the Philippines as a concession by the president to avoid emigration by Chinese-Filipinos.
Viewed as “the rich” by most Filipinos, ethnic Chinese have been victimized by kidnap gangs for years, especially around Christmas and election time.
One recent victim, Betti Sy, the 32-year-old finance director of Coca-Cola Export Corp. in Quezon City, was killed last month when she refused to unlock her car doors when a gang of kidnappers surrounded her.
Arroyo is seeking re-election in May. Five years ago, anti-Chinese riots broke out in Indonesia after the collapse of the lucrative relationship between President Suharto and Chinese-Indonesian entrepreneurs. The riots led to tens of thousands of ethnic Chinese sending their families and funds abroad.
The loss of Chinese funds, coupled with the know-how of people who had practically run the Indonesian food chain, left the country in an economic and financial maelstrom from which it is still recovering. Like Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines, an ethnic Chinese minority in Indonesia controlled a disproportionate slice of the economy–some 70 percent.
Arroyo, a Catholic who opposes the death penalty, explained her move by saying she was “yielding to higher public interest when dictated by extraordinary circumstances.”
As expected, her action sparked bitter reaction from the Roman Catholic Church.
Rodolfo Diamante, executive director of the Philippine Bishops’ Conference, accused the president of bringing back the death penalty because she needed the Chinese-Filipino community’s financial support for her re-election campaign.
“She is the perfect example of a politician’s succumbing to pressure from a group from whom she needs assistance,” he said.
Presidential candidates and political parties inevitably seek the financial support of the Chinese community before every election by promising a crackdown on the kidnap gangs.
