Filipino crime victims to fight death penalty repeal

MANILA, June 10 (Reuters) Families of kidnapped Filipinos will hold demonstrations next week against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's plan to abolish the death penalty, saying it would send the wrong signal to crime syndicates.

Arroyo, keen to shore up support among the country's powerful Catholic bishops, is expected to sign an order repealing state executions ahead of a visit to the Vatican next month. The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty.

But victims' groups said yesterday that abolishing the law would further embolden crime syndicates, particularly kidnap gangs, who have recently increased their activities.

''Our reaction is one of utter disappointment. The planned lifting of the death penalty is very untimely,'' said Emil Armas, a businessman whose son was snatched last year.

The victims' group plans to protest against the move in Manila's central park next Tuesday.

Police have reported 17 kidnap-for-ransom cases in the capital during the first four months of the year, up from around 10 in the same period last year. But many kidnappings go unreported.

The Philippines abolished capital punishment under its 1987 constitution, but was re-imposed in 1994 when Congress passed a law to allow lethal injections for people convicted of heinous crimes, such as kidnapping, drug trafficking and rape.

Four men were executed before former president Joseph Estrada halted capital punishment in 2000 to please the dominant Catholic church, but the moratorium was lifted by Arroyo amid an upsurge in kidnappings.

No convict has been executed since Arroyo came to power in 2001 and on Easter Sunday this year, the president commuted the death sentences of more than 1,300 convicts to life imprisonment.

Arroyo, who survived an impeachment bid last year, continues to be dogged by allegations of electoral fraud and some analysts believe she is courting the Church ahead of elections next year for the lower house and half the senate.

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