House Deputy Minority Leader and Makati City Rep. Luis Campos Jr. has called for the creation of a Capital Defense Unit that would provide topnotch private lawyers, with the state footing the bill, to poor imates who may be meted with the death penalty if efforts to revive capital punishment succeed.
“Assuming Congress decides to revive death verdicts for the worst criminal offenders, the state should at the very least guarantee that nobody gets wrongfully doomed on account of his or her simply being poor and unable to obtain superior legal representation,” Campos said.
“We have to ensure that disadvantaged individuals accused of capital felonies receive the best legal defense available,” Campos said, as he invoked the mandate of Section 11, Article 3 of the 1987 Constitution that “adequate legal assistance shall not be denied to any person by reason of poverty.”
As proposed by Campos, the CDU would be run by the University of the Philippines College of Law’s Institute of Human Rights and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, retain highly experienced criminal defense lawyers, and pay for all the legal fees of underprivileged defendants facing potential death sentences.
“Our proposal is the definitive answer to deep fears that only destitute defendants would receive death sentences due to their inability to get effective legal representation,” Campos said.
“We have to acknowledge that in the real world, getting hold of adequate legal remedies has a price not everybody can pay. This is why the state has to come in and help defend those who have less in life,” he added.
Campos sought an initial appropriation of P260 million for the CDU.
He said the unit would be separate and distinct from the Public Attorney’s Office under the Department of Justice.
