INCOMING speaker and Davao del Norte Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez said the proposal to institute capital punishment by hanging will top the priority agenda of the House of Representatives when the 17th Congress convenes in July.
Alvarez said the bigger chamber of the 17th Congress will fully support the administration of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, especially on his advocacy to address criminality in the first three to six months of his administration.
“[The proposal for] death penalty will be one of our priority agenda in the [17th] Congress,” Alvarez said, saying that the House leadership under his stewardship will strive to pass legislative measures that would be deemed urgent by the Duterte administration.
Alvarez made the statement in response to the pronouncement of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno Friday that the restoration of the death penalty will require the enactment of a law by Congress.
The death penalty law was abolished in 1986 during the term of former President Corazon Aquino but was revived by Republic Act 7659 under former President Fidel V Ramos in 1993. It was again suspended in 2006 by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Duterte vowed to impose the death penalty against heinous crimes particularly robbery with rape within the next six months and even promised to carry out at least 50 executions a month to serve as a strong deterrent against criminality.
Alvarez also reiterated that the next Congress will prioritize the passage of a measure amending the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act to return to 12 from 15 years old the minimum age of criminal liability as well as the proposal revising the 1987 Constitution to change the country’s government from unitary to federal, among others.
Alvarez said it is high time to amend Republic Act 9344 where minors aged 15 and below are exempted from any criminal liability.
He also said Charter Change may be done thru a constitutional commission which he said will be more practical than a constitutional convention which he described to be expensive and divisive.
“We prefer a con-com that is composed of learned people, recognized experts in their fields, and then after that Congress can look at the draft,” Alvarez earlier said.