Opposition solons to fight revival of death penalty
Credit to Author: racosta| Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2019 21:08:50 +0000
Opposition senators on Friday vowed to fight “tooth and nail” to block the death penalty bill, even as more lawmakers are openly endorsing the measure.
“We strongly and unequivocally oppose the reimposition of death penalty. We are prepared to fight it all the way,” Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said in a statement.
4 pending bills
“It will be a tough fight considering that it is an administration-backed legislation and a number of senators have openly endorsed its passage, let alone our diminished number in the Senate,” he said.
“Notwithstanding these difficulties, we will do our best to prevent it. We will never allow the 18th Congress to give license to authorities to kill the poor,” Drilon added.
There are four pending bills seeking to revive the death penalty in the Senate.
These were authored by Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senators Manny Pacquiao, Ronald dela Rosa, Panfilo Lacson and Bong Go.
For heinous crimes
Other lawmakers who expressed support for the revival of the death penalty for heinous crimes include Senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Cynthia Villar, Imee Marcos, Aquilino Pimentel III, Sonny Angara, Pia Cayetano, Bong Revilla, Francis Tolentino and Lito Lapid.
The only senators opposing it, aside from Drilon, are Senators Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima, who is presently detained at Camp Crame.
In his statement, Drilon warned that reviving the death penalty is like meting out a death sentence to the poor, given the inadequacies of the justice system in the Philippines.
Only poor will be victim
“It has been proven time and again that capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to crimes. Only the poor will be made victim of this measure,” he said.
“No justice will be served if it involves taking a life. Let’s be more rational, humane, independent and conscientious in handling this very sensitive issue,” Drilon said.
He said lawmakers opposing the death penalty are banking on the support of majority of Filipinos who are against its restoration.
Drilon cited a 2018 Social Weather Stations survey that showed that 7 out of 10 Filipinos are not in favor of imposing the death penalty on a number of serious crimes.
Treaty obligation
He pointed out that the Philippines is duty-bound to honor its obligations under ratified international treaties, such as the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which mandates the abolition of capital punishment.
Drilon said the protocol does not provide for withdrawal or derogation mechanism, which means that parties to the protocol cannot reinstate the death penalty without violating international law.
“Unless this issue is resolved, we cannot have a complete debate, because we will be back to the same question: Can the Philippines reimpose death penalty without any regard to our treaty obligation?” he said.