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The Philippines has a long history with capital punishment, but it was most recently suspended in the year 2006 and replaced with the life imprisonment and reclusion perpetua.

In 1946, murder, rape, and treason were grounds for the death penalty. Until 1961, 51 were sentenced to death by the law. This number soared high under the leadership of strongman Ferdinand Marcos.

Under the Marcos regime, drug trafficking was added to the list of crimes punishable by death. Electric chairs were the primary instrument for execution during Marcos’ time, which were replaced by firing squads in 1976. When Marcos was overthrown during the 1986 People Power Revolution, the Philippines became the first country in Asia to abolish death penalty by virtue of the 1987 Constitution.

Death penalty was reinstated under the rule of then-President Fidel Ramos, which used gas chambers and electric chairs to dispense judgment. Executions continued until the second suspension of the death penalty under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who suspended it under Republic Act No. 9346 in 2006.

The Philippines abolished capital punishment in June 2006 when then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Republic Act No. 9346, also known as An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of the Death Penalty in the Philippines.

Arroyo said the death penalty  should be abolished because it had not proven to be a deterrent to crime and had become a dead-letter law. RA 9346 downgraded the death penalty to life imprisonment.

The Philippines has had a history of invoking and scrapping capital punishment since the end of World War II.

Between 1946 and 1965—the year Ferdinand Marcos became the President—35 people were executed, mainly convicted of particularly savage crimes marked by “senseless depravity” or “extreme criminal perversity.”

Following the Edsa People Power Revolution that toppled Marcos from power, then President Corazon Aquino promulgated the 1987 Constitution, which abolished the death penalty “unless for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, Congress hereafter provides for it.”

In 1993, Congress passed RA 7659, or the Death Penalty Law, which reimposed capital punishment.

Under RA 7659, crimes punishable by death included murder, rape, big-time drug trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, treason, piracy, qualified bribery, parricide, infanticide, plunder, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, robbery with violence or intimidation, qualified vehicle theft and arson.

In March 1996, through RA 8177, the law was amended prescribing death by lethal injection for offenders convicted of heinous crimes.

But opposition from human rights groups held up executions until 1999.

Between 1999 and 2000, during the term of deposed President Joseph Estrada, seven inmates were put to death.

The first to be executed was Leo Echegaray, on Feb. 9, 1999, and the last was Alex Bartolome, on Jan. 4, 2000. Echegaray was convicted of raping his stepdaughter. Bartolome was convicted also of raping his daughter more than 100 times over two years, starting when she was 16.

Source:INQUIRER.NET

The UN Secretary General António Guterres marked the World Day Against the Death Penalty by praising the efforts of countries to end the practice.

He said "170 States have either abolished the death penalty or introduced a moratorium on its use."

A moratorium is an agreement to suspend a policy or action.

So, is he right?

The UN Secretary General's report on the death penalty presented to the Human Rights Council in September this year says that "some 170 States have abolished or introduced a moratorium on the death penalty either in law or in practice, or have suspended executions for more than 10 years."

As the UN has 193 members, this implies that 23 states carried out at least one execution in the past decade.

The UN says these figures are compiled from information provided by member states as well as civil society.

However, Amnesty says that 142 countries have either abolished the death penalty in law or in practice and that in the past five years 33 countries have carried out at least one execution.

Amnesty collects its statistics using official figures, media reports and information passed on from individuals sentenced to death and their families and representatives.

Four countries were responsible for 84% of executions in 2017 (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan and Iran). That doesn't include China, where the statistics are a state secret. Amnesty estimates that China carries out thousands of executions each year.

Methods of execution in 2017 were beheading, hanging, lethal injection and shooting.

The human rights organisation recorded at least 2,591 death sentences in 53 countries in 2017. But in some cases the death sentences will be commuted, where countries are reluctant to enforce the punishment.

According to Amnesty there are:

• 106 countries where use of the death penalty is not allowed by law
• 7 countries which permit the death penalty only for serious crimes in exceptional circumstances, such as those committed during times of war
• 29 countries which have death penalty laws but haven't executed anyone for at least 10 years, and a policy or more formal commitment not to execute
• 56 countries which retain death penalty laws and either carry out executions or the authorities have not made an official declaration not to execute

(Amnesty includes five non UN-member countries. Thailand included for an execution carried out in 2018).

The Malaysian government followed the secretary general's comments with an announcement that it intends to abolish the death penalty.

About 1,200 people are thought to be on death row in Malaysia, where the punishment is given for offences including murder, drug trafficking and treason. The parliament will consider a bill at its next session.

If Malaysia does abolish the death penalty, it would follow Guinea and Mongolia, which ended the practice in 2017. The Gambian president Adama Barrow announced a suspension earlier this year. The Guardian reported that the death penalty was last used in Gambia in 2012.

In June, Burkina Faso's parliament adopted a new penal code which abolishes the death penalty. At the end of 2017 there were 20 countries which have abolished capital punishment in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to Amnesty.

In total 23 people were executed in the US last year. Washington state became the 20th to ban the death penalty in October 2018. The state's Supreme Court found that the punishment was applied in an "arbitrary and racially biased manner".

The number of countries which have formally abolished the death penalty has been steadily increasing, from 48 in 1991 to 106 in 2017. In recent years the number of countries which carry out executions has also gradually declined.

Countries that carried out executions between 2013 and 2017:

Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Botswana, Chad, China, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand (2018), United Arab Emirates, USA, Vietnam and Yemen. (Due to ongoing conflicts in Libya and Syria, Amnesty International is not able to confirm that judicial executions were carried out in these countries).

The 21 countries that did not carry out an execution in those years despite not having abolished the death penalty:

Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Comoros, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guyana, Jamaica, Lebanon, Lesotho, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Zimbabwe.