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[av_heading heading=’House panel OKs death penalty bill’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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MANILA – Ten years after it was abolished, the proposal to reimpose the death penalty has advanced to the plenary of the Lower House.
Voting 12-6-1, the House justice committee approved restoring the death penalty.
The bill reimposes the death penalty for heinous crimes which it defined as “grievous, odious and hateful offenses, which by reason of their inherent or manifest wickedness, viciousness, atrocity and perversity are repugnant, outrageous to the common standards and norms of decency and morality.”
It proposes three modes of execution: hanging, firing squad or lethal injection.
Under the substitute bill, all impositions of the death penalty will be automatically reviewed by the Supreme Court no later than 15 days after the judgment is promulgated.
The crimes that will be covered are the same crimes that were covered by the previous law on the death penalty, Republic Act 7659.
Punishable by the death penalty are treason, qualified piracy, qualified bribery, parricide, murder, infanticide, rape, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons, destructive arson, and plunder.
Illegal drug offenses are also included in the list of crimes punishable by death.
The proposed measure, however, imposes a lower threshold for imposing the death penalty for possession of drugs.
Under the proposal, the death penalty will be imposed for possession of dangerous drugs for the following quantities:
*10 grams or more of opium,
*10 grams or more of morphine,
*10 grams or more of heroin,
*10 grams or more of cocaine hydrochloride,
*10 grams or more of shabu,
*10 grams or more of marijuana resign or marijuana resin oil,
*500 grams or more of marijuana, and
*10 grams or more of other dangerous drugs.
After the vote, Bayan Muna representative Carlos Zarate said the reimposition of the death penalty will only hurt the country’s poor.
“Seldom if ever at all that the rich, elite and the influential people have been made to suffer the penalty of death in this country,” Zarate said.
“Worldwide, it has been proven that state-sponsored killings do not deter the commission of crime; on the contrary, it would just continue. The deterrent to crime is to ensure that perpetrators are caught and penalized fast.”
Zarate said the death penalty would also not cure the problem of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) which have marred the government’s war on drugs.
“It is a myth that with the death penalty there would be no extrajudicial killings; in fact, they will continue unless the same exploitative and corrupt justice system exists,” he said.
“Death penalty is not a substitute to nor will cure the commission of EJKs. As long as police take short cuts and human rights are not respected, EJKs will still happen despite the death penalty law.”
Dinagat Islands representative Arlene Bag-ao, for her part, stressed that the Constitution bars “excessive fines” that are “degrading or inhuman.”
She also noted that the the Philippines is a signatory to the 2nd Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“We agreed not to execute anyone within our jurisdiction and to take all necessary means to abolish the death penalty. Are we ready to be condemned by the international community for breaching international laws?” Bag-ao said.
“Death penalty is a legalized process of extrajudicial killing which is a mere translation of state-sponsored killings which we are now experiencing.” (ABS-CBN News)
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