AN OPPOSITION lawmaker on Wednesday called on Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and the leadership of the House supermajority to allow a conscience vote on the proposed reimposition of the death penalty.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said Alvarez must allow a thorough debate on death penalty bill and “liberate members of the majority coalition to advocate differing views and assure free debate on the revival of capital punishment.”
Lagman made the call after the House sub-committee on judicial reforms of the Hosue committee on justice approved Tuesday a substitute bill adhering to the proposal of HB 1 imposing the death penalty on at least 21 crimes considered “heinous.”
“The precipitate approval, which was assured by the preponderant presence of ex-officio members who outnumbered the regular members, was vitiated by non-compliance with the prior three-calendar day notice rule to the members informing them of the scheduled meeting, abrupt termination of the testimonies of resource persons and absence of a requisite committee report,” Lagman said.
Lagman said the proponents of the consolidated substitute bill failed to comply with the constitutional requirement of showing compelling reasons for the reimposition of the death penalty.
Alvarez earlier said the House leadership was eyeing the passage of the death penalty bill before Congress goes on Christmas break starting December 16.
The Speaker said the death penalty bill was a priority measure since it was listed in the top agenda of the Duterte administration which had been active in its war against drugs.
Alvarez principally authored HB 1 which seeks to re-impose death penalty on “heinous crimes,” such as human trafficking, illegal recruitment, plunder, treason, parricide, infanticide, rape, qualified piracy and bribery, kidnapping and illegal detention, robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons, car theft, destructive arson, terrorism and drug-related cases.
“There is evidently a need to reinvigorate the war against criminality by reviving a proven deterrent coupled by its consistent, persistent and determined implementation, and this need is as compelling and critical as any,” Alvarez said in his HB No. 1.
“The imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes and the mode of its implementation, both subjects of repealed laws, are crucial components of an effective dispensation of both reformative and retributive justice,” the bill stated.
Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law was abolished in 1986 during the term of then President Corazon Aquino.
It was restored by former President Fidel Ramos in 1993, and was suspended again in 2006 by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
President Rodrigo Duterte said he wanted the capital punishment by hanging reimposed.
Duterte also vowed to carry out at least 50 executions a month to serve as a strong deterrent against criminality.
In pushing for his bill, Alvarez lamented that the rise of criminality in the country had reached an “alarming proportion” and the government must do an “all-out offensive against all forms of felonious acts.”