PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte will certify as urgent a bill
Duterte will certify as urgent a bill
seeking to restore the death penalty for drug trafficking,
plunder and other heinous crimes, his spokesman said
yesterday.
“If you ask him, death by hanging is cheaper,” presidential
spokesman Salvador S. Panelo said at a briefing in Manila.
“But I think we will stick with the old method of using lethal
injection,” he said in Filipino.
Mr. Duterte in his annual address to Congress on Monday said
drug traffickers must be put to death, noting that the illegal
drug menace persists despite his deadly war on drugs that has
killed thousands.
“I am aware that we still have a long way to go in our fight
against this social menace,” the president told lawmakers.
“That’s the reason why I advocate the imposition of the death
penalty for crimes related to illegal drugs.”
Reinstating capital punishment will be among the priority bills
of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council
(LEDAC), Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III told reporters.
“If it is confined to high-level drug trafficking, it stands a good
chance,” the senator said. “It could be a squeaker, but it could
pass in the Senate.”
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo I . Guevarra said
capital punishment might deter some serious crimes.
“The fear of being put to death for the commission of a crime
will naturally prompt a criminally minded person to think
twice,” he said in a text message.
Philippine National Police chief General Oscar D. Albayalde
for his part said something needs to be done to the justice
system to ensure innocent people won’t suffer. Law enforcers,
he added, make mistakes during operations.
Being able to execute criminals “will be a game changer in our
continuing campaign against illegal drugs,” he said, even as he
admitted that Congress won’t restore the death penalty without
putting safeguards.
The Philippines became the first Asian country to abolish the
death penalty for all crimes, but it was reintroduced in late
1993 for 46 different offenses, according to Amnesty
International.
Executions resumed in 1999 after 23 years, according to the
London-based group focused on human rights. Former
President Joseph E. Estrada in 2000 announced a halt on
executions, which his successor ex-President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo continued.
The Philippines under Mrs. Arroyo again suspended capital
punishment in 2006 through a law. Before that, she commuted
the death sentences of 1,230 inmates to life imprisonment,
which Amnesty International said was the “largest ever
commutation of death sentences.”
In 2007, the country became a party to the Second Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights regarding the abolition of the death penalty.
“The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and
degrading punishment,” Amnesty International said on its
website. “Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases
without exception — regardless of who is accused, the nature
or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence or method of
execution.” — Vann M. Villegas, Vince Angelo C. Ferreras
and Arjay L. Balinbin
PRESIDENT Rodrigo R.
seeking to restore the death penalty for drug trafficking,
plunder and other heinous crimes, his spokesman said
yesterday.
“If you ask him, death by hanging is cheaper,” presidential
spokesman Salvador S. Panelo said at a briefing in Manila.
“But I think we will stick with the old method of using lethal
injection,” he said in Filipino.
Mr. Duterte in his annual address to Congress on Monday said
drug traffickers must be put to death, noting that the illegal
drug menace persists despite his deadly war on drugs that has
killed thousands.
“I am aware that we still have a long way to go in our fight
against this social menace,” the president told lawmakers.
“That’s the reason why I advocate the imposition of the death
penalty for crimes related to illegal drugs.”
Reinstating capital punishment will be among the priority bills
of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council
(LEDAC), Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III told reporters.
“If it is confined to high-level drug trafficking, it stands a good
chance,” the senator said. “It could be a squeaker, but it could
pass in the Senate.”
Meanwhile, Justice Secretary Menardo I . Guevarra said
capital punishment might deter some serious crimes.
“The fear of being put to death for the commission of a crime
will naturally prompt a criminally minded person to think
twice,” he said in a text message.
Philippine National Police chief General Oscar D. Albayalde
for his part said something needs to be done to the justice
system to ensure innocent people won’t suffer. Law enforcers,
he added, make mistakes during operations.
Being able to execute criminals “will be a game changer in our
continuing campaign against illegal drugs,” he said, even as he
admitted that Congress won’t restore the death penalty without
putting safeguards.
The Philippines became the first Asian country to abolish the
death penalty for all crimes, but it was reintroduced in late
1993 for 46 different offenses, according to Amnesty
International.
Executions resumed in 1999 after 23 years, according to the
London-based group focused on human rights. Former
President Joseph E. Estrada in 2000 announced a halt on
executions, which his successor ex-President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo continued.
The Philippines under Mrs. Arroyo again suspended capital
punishment in 2006 through a law. Before that, she commuted
the death sentences of 1,230 inmates to life imprisonment,
which Amnesty International said was the “largest ever
commutation of death sentences.”
In 2007, the country became a party to the Second Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights regarding the abolition of the death penalty.
“The death penalty is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and
degrading punishment,” Amnesty International said on its
website. “Amnesty opposes the death penalty in all cases
without exception — regardless of who is accused, the nature
or circumstances of the crime, guilt or innocence or method of
execution.” — Vann M. Villegas, Vince Angelo C. Ferreras
and Arjay L. Balinbin