RP death convict wins last-minute reprieve<\/p>\n
MANILA (AFP): In a dramatic decision on Monday just three
\nhours before a convicted rapist was due to be put to death, the
\nPhilippine Supreme Court granted him an almost six-month stay of
\nexecution.<\/p>\n
The court order suspended the execution of Leo Echegaray until
\nafter June 15 in response to a petition filed by his lawyer last
\nweek asking for more time while legislators debate the death
\npenalty.<\/p>\n
The 11th-hour decision suspended what would have been the
\ncountry's first execution in 22 years. It also reopened the
\nfierce debate on capital punishment with President Joseph Estrada
\nangrily assailing the court's decision.<\/p>\n
Echegaray, 38, a decorator, had already been moved before dawn
\non Monday from the maximum security \"death row\" of the national
\npenitentiary to a holding area directly adjoining the death
\nchamber where he was due to receive a lethal injection at 3:00 pm
\n(2 p.m. Jakarta time).<\/p>\n
He had been sentenced to death in 1994 for raping his then 11-
\nyear-old daughter.<\/p>\n
Prison superintendent Venancio Tesoro said prison chaplain
\nFather Roberto Olaguer gave Echegaray the news of his reprieve as
\nthe condemned man was about to eat his last meal of dried fish
\nand sardines.<\/p>\n
Echegaray had been unable to touch his food but when he got
\nthe news, he embraced Father Olaguer and then invited the four
\nrelatives who were due to witness his death-- his new wife, his
\nsister and two aunts-- into the holding area to share his meal.<\/p>\n
The court order was also received with applause and cries of
\n\"Praise the Lord\" by about 100 death penalty opponents and
\nrelatives of death row convicts who had been holding vigil for
\nEchegaray on prison grounds since Sunday.<\/p>\n
However, Estrada, who has refused to commute Echegaray's death
\nsentence, hit out at the court order, saying \"it does not serve
\nthe interests of the Supreme Court to change rules... so late in
\nthe day.\"<\/p>\n
He added the judiciary did not have the power to suspend laws
\nand said the court's order was \"purely political and not a legal
\nact.\" Estrada also vowed to veto any lifting of the death
\npenalty.<\/p>\n
\"Today is a sad day for law enforcement and the rule of law,\"
\nEstrada added.<\/p>\n
In a show of support for the death penalty, Estrada scheduled
\nan impromptu meeting with Echegaray's victim. The girl,
\nidentified only as \"Baby\", now aged 15, had earlier called for
\nEchegaray's death and criticized opponents of the death penalty
\nfor trying to prevent his execution.<\/p>\n
Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas said he had ordered a motion
\nof reconsideration to be filed to the Supreme Court asking it to
\nreverse its order suspending the execution or at least to shorten
\nthe period covered.<\/p>\n
Echegaray's lawyer, Theodore Te, a member of a human rights
\nlawyers' group campaigning against the death penalty, said \"at
\nleast, they gave a fighting chance to Echegaray.\"<\/p>\n
\"We have our work cut out for us. We will work to convince the
\ncongressmen to do away with the death penalty,\" said Te, adding
\nthat \"by all means, this is not finished but this is the
\nimportant first step in the campaign against the death penalty.\"<\/p>\n
In its order, the Supreme Court warned that it would not
\nentertain any more petitions for a postponement of the execution
\nafter June 15.<\/p>\n
The last execution in the Philippines was in 1976.<\/p>\n
The death penalty was abolished under a new constitution in
\n1987 but it was restored in 1994 amid popular clamor after a
\nspate of spectacular crimes.<\/p>\n
Its scope was even widened to include such rimes as child
\nrape, kidnapping, murder and possession of drugs down to 750
\ngrams of marijuana.<\/p>\n
Since then, 864 people have been placed on death row.<\/p>\n
The death penalty remains widely popular in this country
\nalthough the Roman Catholic church, to which most Filipinos
\nbelong, has consistently campaigned against it.<\/p>",
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