President Arroyo believes the death penalty is the answer to rising crime

BBC Radio 4's Crossing Continents was broadcast on Thursday, 25 March, 2004 at 1100 GMT.

The programme was repeated on Monday, 29 March, 2004, at 2030 BST.

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There are more than 1000 men on death row in the Philippines, sentenced for crimes like kidnapping, rape and murder.

Executions have been suspended for the past four years, as a gesture by the last president to mark the Christian millennium.

But with elections coming up in May, President Gloria Arroyo has announced that the execution of kidnappers will resume.

INSIDE DEATH CHAMBER The BBC's Julian Pettifer is taken inside the Lethal Injection Chamber In pictures

Julian Pettifer's report begins in the Death Chamber at the National Penitentiary in Manila where prison staff have been dong "dry runs" in readiness for the real thing.

He spoke to the prison chaplain who will be with the condemned men during their final hours.

But he also talked to members of the wealthy Filipino Chinese community who have been targeted by kidnappers seeking ransom.

A mother whose two teenage daughters were kidnapped, raped and murdered says she wants to be in the death chamber to see the killers die by lethal injection.

Julian Pettifer also heard how a man was sentenced to death for rape even though the victim had withdrawn the charge and the judge had demanded a �2000 bribe from the accused.

Where the judicial system and law enforcement are so deeply flawed, how can the death penalty be defended?