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BY PRINCE GOLEZ
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Friday, March 10, 2017
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MANILA – Liberal Party (LP) members are giving the proposal to reinstate the death penalty an “uphill battle” in the Senate, Franklin Drilon said.
On Tuesday the House of Representatives approved the contentious measure allowing death as punishment for drug-related crimes, with 217 affirmative votes, 54 negative votes and one abstention.
“The [LP] and its allies will take a position against the death penalty,” the senator from Iloilo City disclosed.
Once the proposal reaches the Senate floor, the LP will present “strong arguments” against it, said the minority leader.
“Nobody can predict what will happen in the Senate [but] we have taken an LP stand,” stressed Drilon, a former Senate president.
Senator-members of the once-ruling party include Drilon, Ralph Recto, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Leila de Lima (now detained on drug charges), and Francis Pangilinan.
Ally senators Risa Hontiveros and Antonio Trillanes IV will support the LP stand, Drilon claimed.
The party already expressed opposition to the death penalty, saying it “victimizes the poor” and “violates international law.”
The Philippine criminal justice system, according to the LP, clearly has flaws.
“The solution to crime is ensuring certainty of punishment by a systematic, inter-branch push to reform our justice system,” it said.
Drilon believes the House representatives “[took] a conscience vote” on Tuesday.
Panfilo Lacson, a death penalty bill author in the Senate, doubted that the measures could withstand Upper House scrutiny.
“Ang bilang ko mukhang malabo sa Senado,” said Lacson. “Sa mental calculation ko, based on my informal discussion with my colleagues, sa bilang hindi aabot sa dose.”
He added: “We will vote on the basis on our belief, conviction and kung ano iyong inaakala naming tama sa aming desisyon.”
Senators Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Emmanuel Pacquiao, and Vicente Sotto III also filed bills seeking to revive the death penalty./PN
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