HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS' POSITION ON DEATH PENALTY The Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA)claimsthat the application of death penalty is a violation of therightto life and the right not to be subjected to torture or degrading treatment or punishmentasarticulated in the UDHR,the ICCPRandInternational Convention Against Torture and Other Formsof Cruel, Inhumanor Degrading Treatment or Punishmentof 1984. PAHRA averred that there can never bea justification for torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Like torture, an execution constitutes extreme physical and mental assault on a person already rendered helpless by government authorities. The FLAG,on the other hand, maintains that the death penalty is the highest form oftorture. Hence, it deserves noplace in our penal system. Studies of FLAG revealed that the death penalty has not deterred the commission of heinouscrimes. In a position paper submitted to the CHR, the FLAG said: “x x x the commissionofheinous crimesrosesharply despite the reimposition of death penalty. The commission of rape increased by 40% in 1994 and 44% in 1995. Violent raids of banks and other business establishments rose sharply in the first quarter of 1995. Kidnapping andserious illegal detention continue to occur, with many cases unreported, as victims havelost faith in the authorities. In 1994, the country's nationwide crime volume declined by only 1% from the previous year but the total crime volume in Metro Manila reached 27,008 or an average month crime rate of 24.93% about 6.79% higher than the 1993 monthly rate of 18.14%.” Study conducted by the Amnesty International revealed that when death was the penalty for various crimes during Martial Law, violent crimes increased with alarming regularity. Survey show that the threat of death did not in any way deter crime as shown in the crime volume and crimerates between 1979 and 1985. As events have shown,there is again a clamor to examinethe efficacy and justification for the imposition of death penalty. The Commission on Human Rights haverecently received request from humanrights groups from abroad appealing for the repeal of Republic Act No. 7659. The latest communication came from Organization Mondiale Contra La Torture (World Organization Against Torture) (OMCT,) coursed through the Philippine Mission to the UN in Geneva expressing its grave concern forthe first death sentence affirmed by the Supreme Court on Leo P. Echegaray. On March 3, 1997, the Supreme Court of the Philippines affirmed the second death sentence of a rapist (People vs. Pablito Andan). Unless the President exercises his executive clemency, Leo Echegaray will be executed bylethal injection sometime in August 1997 pursuant to Republic Act No. 8177. The OMCT noted that the Philippines is a State party to both Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or, Degrading Treatments or Punishments and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which prohibit the infliction of any kind of physical or mental pain as a form of punishment. Incidentally, the Supreme Court held another hearing in the motion for reconsideration filed by defense counsel in the Echegaray case (G. R. No. 117472, People of the Philippines vs. Leo Echegaray y Pilo). For the first time, the constitutionalvalidity of death penalty as a cruel unusual punishmentwasraised. In the course of the argument, the issues on the moral justification and efficacy of capital punishmentwere again extensively discussed