Death Row - Philippines (2000)

Synopsis:
A man lies down to die. He is strapped to a bed and his left arm is punctured with a crude yet fatal drip.

He is not alone. Over 1300 prisoners in the Philippines are on death row, awaiting their lethal injection. Among them are women and even children. The rising number of executions is part of a crackdown on crime -- Zero Tolerance Filipino style. The man in charge of this campaign is Ping Lacson of the Philippines National Police. He was nick-named Dirty Harry when he broke a big gang of Manila bank robbers and took no prisoners. Instead eleven suspects were shot dead in suspicious circumstances. "I would rather be feared than loved ... as long as I get things done", he says. And he is getting things done. In his first six months petty crime is down 30 percent and drug arrests have doubled. While politicians score points, human rights activists and leaders of the Catholic Church call for an abolition of the death penalty.
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