INSTEAD of pushing for the revival of the death penalty, the government should concentrate on saving lives amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a senior lawmaker said on Sunday.
This was Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza’s “polite rejoinder” to President Duterte’s call, made in his State of the Nation Address, for Congress to revive capital punishment for heinous crimes.
The House Committee on Justice is looking to conduct a hearing for the proposals reviving death penalty in the Philippines this week.
“The government should concentrate on saving lives and quelling the coronavirus pandemic now and allow the next administration to worry about the proposal to bring back the death penalty,” he said.
“We’re now in the middle of a public health disaster that has already demolished the livelihood and jobs of millions of Filipinos,” Atienza said.
The former three-term mayor of Manila has been fighting the restoration of the death penalty, saying the proposal violates the sanctity of life and constitutes cruel and inhuman punishment.
“Both Malacañang and Congress should focus on suppressing Covid-19, stabilizing a dangerously teetering economy and recovering lost jobs, instead of wasting time on the death penalty,” Atienza said.
“First of all, Congress realistically lacks the time to work on the death penalty,” Atienza said.
“Secondly, in less than 22 months, we will be electing a new president and a new Congress, so we might as well let the next administration worry about the highly divisive proposal,” Atienza added.
“Thirdly, even assuming Congress reinstates the death penalty tomorrow, the President still won’t see any judicial executions being carried out for the remainder of his term,” Atienza said.
He said the last time Congress passed a law reimposing capital punishment in 1993, the first death verdict was not carried out until 1999, or until six years later, due to legal challenges and mandatory reviews.
Instead of renewing death sentences, Atienza called for wide-ranging reforms in the criminal justice system, citing the need to stamp out rampant corruption in law enforcement, the prosecution service, the judiciary, and in prisons.
Earlier, Majority Leader Martin Romualdez said the House is ready to stand up to the task and pass the priority bills outlined by the President, including thorough deliberations on measures for the reimposition of death penalty for drug-related charges.
“Pass now”
House Committee on Dangerous Drugs Chairman Robert Ace Barbers has strongly seconded the call of the President reviving the death penalty specifically for drug related crimes.
In the 17th Congress, Barbers was one of the principal authors of the death penalty bill which was passed by the House on third reading but was not taken up by the Senate.
“Illegal drugs is a menace in society. It destroys not only its victims but entire families, and with them, the whole nation. Re-imposing the death penalty now on drug-related offenses will surely stop the criminals in their tracks and deter them from further plying their trade, thus giving our youth the much-needed breather as we put in place more measures to secure their future, free from drugs and protected from criminals,” Barbers said.