THE House of Representatives will exercise its legislative mandate to pass the proposed bill to reimpose death penalty being a priority measure of the Duterte administration despite the Senate’s seeming hesitation to have it passed.
Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House committee on justice, said it was the duty of the Lower House to act on the measures filed before them, stressing these were administration priority bills.
“We respect their views on that… but we have a job to do and it is for us to pass. We will [pass] it even if the Senate [shares a different view on the measure]; I am sure they will listen,” Umali told a news conference.
The bill, principally authored by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, was passed by the House justice committee last December.
It is expected to be tackled in plenary session anytime as Congress resumed its session Monday after a month-long holiday break.
“In so far as we are concerned, it this is what it takes for the House of Representatives to pass this, we will do it, regardless of what action the Senate will take on the pending bills,” Umali said.
Umali said the death penalty bill would remain as top agenda of the House.
“This is on top of our priority because the priority was given by no less than the President on the matter,” Umali said.
“This is what is expected to keep us busy for quite some time now, preparing for the sponsorship on second reading before the plenary,” he added.
The bill proposes to impose death penalty on more than 20 heinous offenses, such as rape with homicide, kidnapping for ransom, and arson with death.
Alvarez earlier stressed the need for Congress “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.”
“The imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes and the mode of its implementation, both subjects of repealed laws, are crucial components of an effective dispensation of both reformative and retributive justice,” the bill stated.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said he would want 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.
Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law was abolished in 1986 during the term of then President Corazon Aquino.
It was restored by her successor Fidel V. Ramos in 1993, and was suspended again in 2006 by then president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.