Party-list group Buhay has urged all Senate and House runners in the May 13 midterm elections to declare their “exact position” on the controversial proposal to bring back the death penalty.
“Voters deserve to know the clear-cut stance of every Senate and House aspirant—whether they are for or against the return of capital punishment,” said Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza, the House senior deputy minority leader.
“It would be unfair—even deceitful—for candidates to court the support of voters who are opposed to the death penalty, only to betray them later on,” Atienza, a former three-term mayor of Manila, said.
The House, voting 217 in favor, 54 against and with one abstention, passed on third and final reading in March 2017 a bill reinstating the death penalty for drug-related offenses.
The bill, however, remains unsigned because the Senate has refused to take it up.
Atienza fought against the passage of the House bill reviving judicial executions on the grounds that they violate the sanctity of human life.
Instead, Atienza introduced a substitute bill that seeks to impose the new penalty of “qualified reclusion perpertua” on the worst criminal offenders.
The penalty is equal to imprisonment for 40 years, or until the convict reaches 70 years old, without the benefit of early release.
The results of a Social Weather Stations survey in March 2018 showed that less than 40 percent of Filipinos believe that the death penalty should be the punishment for people convicted of grave drug-related offenses.
Among those who disagreed with the death penalty, 42 percent invoked religious reasons for opposing it, 21 percent believe it is possible for offenders to reform, 14 percent believe in alternatives to executions, 10 percent cited the country’s corrupt and unreliable criminal justice system, seven percent mentioned humane reasons, and three percent disputed the policy itself.
“The certainty of capture and punishment is the best deterrence to crime, more than the penalty itself. And the modern world has come to accept that prolonged imprisonment is just as effective,” Atienza said.
“The death penalty leaves no room for rectification. A dead convict cannot be brought back to life even if somebody else later on confesses to the crime,” Atienza said.
Congress revived the death penalty for 13 heinous crimes in 1993, only to abolish it in 2006 due to mounting flaws.