Punishmentandthe International Convention on Civil and Political Rights,3 to which the country is a State Party. As early as 1991, the Commission on HumanRights found commoncause with the abolitionists. In its Resolution No. A91-033, the Commission expressedits sense and declared: [It] is notfully convinced that the death penalty is the answer to rising criminality. The proper response to criminality lies in effective law enforcement, the quick and impartialdelivery ofjustice, and a responsive penal system. Only when such reforms are proven to be ineffective should the legislature begin to consider other alternatives to restore the death penalty. 200K The proper response to the failure of our justice system is political will to effectively apprehend, prosecute and rehabilitate criminals. To mete out to criminals the very final, irrevocable and inhuman verdict of death is tantamount to punishing them for the failure of the system+. The commission extended Four Hundred Ten Thousand Pesos (P410,000.00) as financial support to the FLAGinits representationofthe death convicts. OTHER FORA In the Echegaraycase, the Supreme Court laidto rest the constitutionality of the death penalty law and sidestepped the moralissuesraised againstit in this wise: ... Our courts are not the fora for a protracted debate on the morality or propriety of the death sentence where the law itself provides therefore in specific and well-defined criminalacts.5 In our jurisdiction, indeed, it is the duty of judicial officers to respect and applythe law regardlessof their private opinions.¢® But this judicial admonition does not foreclose our right to raise questions against the decision with the Court on any appropriate mode of appeal. Even where relief is unavailing with the judiciary or our advocacya futile exercise by the judicial process, we can address ourselves to other fora as the Legislative and the Executive branches of governmentincluding the barof public opinion. In the larger universe of the judicial system, the Executive Department shares a space with the courts, with * See letter [Special Appeal] from the World Organization against Torture dated February 1997 addressed to the Philippine Government and Letter of Ambassador Lilia R. Bautista, Philippine Permanent Representative to the United Nations, dated 25 February 1997, furnished to the Commission on Human Rights; Letter of Mr. R. J. J. Weernaels of the Amnesty International to the Philippine Government dated 24 January 1997 and furnished to the Commission on Human Rights by the Departmentof ForeignAffairs as an enclosuretoits letter to the Commission dated 19 February 1997. “ CHRResolution No. A91-033 dated 08 August 1991 * People vs. Echegaray, Ibid. 6 People vs. Limaco, Phil. 36, 43 [1951]; People vs. Veneracion, 249 SCRA, 253 [1995], Quoted in People vs. Echegaray. 15