In Defense of the Right to Life: Analyzing Factors Affecting Filipino Opinion About Death Penalty As for the justification of support for the death penalty, there are more adult Filipinos in recent years who believe in the deterrent effect of the death penalty, the most common justification yet often based on flawed research.19 Only pluralities believe that persons who committed a heinous crime can change and that the death penalty is anti-poor. The belief that the death penalty would deter people from committing heinous crimes was 45% in 1999 but declined to 38% in 2002. It increased to an all-time high 60% in 2011, but slightly declined to 56% in 2017. Only a plurality of Filipinos, meanwhile, believe that “The possibility that a person who committed a heinous crime can still change and be a good citizen is a good reason not to reimpose the death penalty”. In 1999, 45% believe that committing a crime due to poverty could be extenuating factor to reduce punishment to death penalty – “It is only proper to reduce the sentence from death penalty to life imprisonment if it is proven that the cause of crime is poverty”. But in 2017, a 41% plurality also believe that death penalty is more likely to be imposed on the poor, “Only the poor and not the rich will usually be meted the death penalty”. Opinion is divided about that “The possibility that an innocent person can be sentenced to death or be meted the death penalty is a good reason not to reimpose this law”. D. Rationale of the Paper Public opinion in support of the death penalty, as is often indicated by the percentages of those who are in favor of the death penalty, therefore, may only just be the “tip of the iceberg”, and as such, presents the need to delve deeper under the surface. As seen in Figure 1, on the surface, public opinion swings toward favoring the death penalty but as one goes beyond the tip of the iceberg, layers and masses of conditions and intentions abound, depicting, as the thesis, a commonality of yearning for an efficient, impartial justice and due process for all. HOOD & HOYLE, infra note 23; MAI SATO, THE DEATH PENALTY IN JAPAN: WILL THE PUBLIC TOLERATE ABOLITION (2011); See Robert Bohm, et al. (1991), supra note 12; See JULIAN ROBERTS, ET AL., PENAL POPULISM AND PUBLIC OPINION: LESSONS FROM FIVE COUNTRIES (2002); DANIEL NAGIN AND JOHN PEPPERS, EDS., NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. DETERRENCE AND THE DEATH PENALTY (2012). 19 4