RP official wants stop to executions

Thu, 08 Mar 2001 | Source: AFP

MANILA (AFP): The justice secretary of the Philippines, Hernando Perez, pronouncing himself against the death penalty, said on Wednesday he would block practically all judicial executions for as long as he was in charge of the country's prisons.

President Gloria Arroyo commuted the sentences of two condemned men on Tuesday on the recommendation of Perez.

Perez revealed the two, Edgar Maligaya and Rodrigo Calma, were due to have been put to death by lethal injection next Wednesday.

Asked if this was the policy of President Arroyo, Perez said: "No, it's just my feeling. I would not want to see anybody die."

There are 1,690 convicts on death row in the Philippines, more than half of them for aggravated rape. The rest were condemned for kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking.

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