BY WENDELL VIGILIA and RAYMOND AFRICA
REP. Michael Defensor of the Anakalusugan party-list group on Sunday urged House leadership to get a consensus before pushing through with deliberations on the proposed revival of the death penalty to avoid wasting time in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Defensor said the bill died a natural death in the last Congress because the Senate did not act on it, and yet the House will again deliberate on the measure without any assurance that it will be acted upon by the other chamber.
“The House approved the re-imposition (of capital punishment) last Congress and yet the Senate did not. So, there should be a consensus before we proceed so as not to waste our time and resources given the current circumstances faced by our people,” said Defensor, chair of the committee on public accounts.
The House committee on justice is set to open deliberations on the bill this week, taking a cue from President Duterte who again asked Congress to re-impose capital punishment on drug-related heinous crimes in his July 27 State of the Nation Address.
“If and when there’s a consensus, what are the crimes to be dealt with the penalty of death? The Constitution sets parameters on this and I will wait for the certified bill to be deliberated on this matter,” Defensor said.
Rep. Lito Atienza (Buhay partylist) said the government “should concentrate on saving lives and quelling the coronavirus pandemic now and allow the next administration to worry about the proposal to bring back the death penalty.”
“We’re now in the middle of a public health disaster that has already demolished the livelihood and jobs of millions of Filipinos,” Atienza said.
“Both Malacañang and Congress should focus on suppressing COVID-19, stabilizing a dangerously teetering economy and recovering lost jobs, instead of wasting time on the death penalty,” Atienza said.
The measure was approved on third and final reading in the 17th Congress under then Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez whose leadership removed from their posts administration lawmakers who voted against the measure, including then deputy speaker Gloria Arroyo who later became the speaker after Alvarez lost majority support.
Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano has yet to openly support the President’s renewed call for the death penalty revival.
Majority leader Martin Romualdez said last week proposed reimposition of death penalty for drug-related cases will be thoroughly debated upon.
Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers, an author of the bill, said re-imposing the death penalty now on drug related offenses “will surely stop the criminals on their tracks and deter them from further plying their trade, thus giving our youth the much needed breather as we put in place more measures to secure their future, free from drugs and protected from criminals.”
‘GIVE IT UP’
Atienza urged Malacañang to give up on reintroducing the extreme punishment, calling it “an exercise in futility.”
Atienza has been fighting the restoration of the death penalty on the ground
that it violates the sanctity of life and constitutes cruel and inhuman punishment,
“First of all, Congress realistically lacks the time to work on the death penalty,” Atienza said. “Secondly, in less than 22 months, we will be electing a new president and a new Congress, so we might as well let the next administration worry about the highly divisive proposal.”
Thirdly, even assuming Congress reinstates the death penalty now, Atienza said the President still won’t see any judicial executions being carried out for the remainder of his term.”
The last time Congress passed a law re-imposing capital punishment was in 1993. The first death verdict was not carried out until 1999, or until six years later, due to legal challenges and mandatory reviews, Atienza recalled.
Instead of renewing death sentences, Atienza pressed for wide-ranging reforms in the criminal justice system, citing the need to stamp out rampant corruption in law enforcement, the prosecution service, the judiciary, and in prisons.
“We have to ensure that every felon is apprehended, prosecuted, convicted and locked up. This is our best strategy to fight crime — to discourage other would-be offenders,” Atienza said.
Sen. Richard Gordon said the renewed call for the re-imposition of the death penalty only goes to show that the government continues to fail in its peace and order campaign as it wants capital punishment to be a deterrent of crimes.
“Gusto nila magkaroon ng death penalty, naging chief PNP si Sen. Bato, maraming naging chief PNP diyan. Ibig sabihin hindi nila naayos ang peace and order. Hindi nila nahikayat ang tao na tumulong para mawala ang riding in tandem. Ibig sabihin failure ang ating peace and order. Mukhang yun ang indication (They want to bring back the death penalty, Sen. Ronald dela Rosa became a PNP chief, many became PNP chief. That only goes to show that they failed in the peace and order campaign. They were not able to convince people to help get rid of riding-in-tandem criminals. This is failure in peace and order. It looks like that is the indication),” Gordon told radio dzBB.
There are 10 pending death penalty bills in the Senate, which were referred to the committee on justice and human rights which Gordon chairs.
Gordon said it is not the time to talk about the death penalty revival as the priority now is how to help the people amid the pandemic.
Dela Rosa earlier volunteered to lead a sub-committee which will hear the revival of the death penalty. He said Gordon has been dragging the hearings on the death penalty.
Gordon said he would not let Dela Rosa handle the justice sub-committee due to the former PNP chief’s “bias” for the approval of the measure. The creation of a sub-committee will all depend on Gordon since he is chair of the justice and human rights committee.
The senators will hold a caucus on Monday, August 3, before their 3 p.m. regular session resumes.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, in an interview over dzRH, believes the re-imposition of the death penalty is not a deterrent to crimes, the main reason he voted for its abolition in 2006.
He also said the priority at this time should be on how to stay safe and alive amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Emmanuel Pacquiao said the people must realize that drug traffickers are taking advantage of the pandemic situation. He said is still backing the death penalty for drug traffickers.
