Alvarez hit for rushing plenary debates on death penalty
House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. CDN FILE PHOTO/Junjie Mendoza
Opposition lawmakers on Tuesday scored Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez for rushing the plenary debates on the bill imposing the death penalty for heinous crimes.
In an ambush interview, Alvarez said the House is targeting to wrap up the plenary debates and amendments on House Bill 4727 restoring the death penalty by March 8.
He denied rushing the plenary debates in a bid to railroad the passage of the controversial measure.
“Hindi po mabilis yun. Antagal na nang ibinigay natin. Isipin nyo po finile nung last year, pagbukas ng Kongreso, oo. Hindi po mabilis yun,” Alvarez said.
(That’s not quick at all. The bill had been filed a long time ago. This was filed last year, upon the opening of Congress. That’s not quick at all.)
The Speaker decried the “delaying tactics” of the critics and for lamenting that the leadership is railroading the passage of the bill.
“Yun na nga ang sinasabi ko, dinidelay nila. Ngayon pag pinagbotohan sasabihin nila, ay railroad,” Alvarez said.
(That’s what I’ve been saying. They’re delaying it, and yet they’re the ones claiming the voting will be railroaded.)
Alvarez said the lower house would pass the bill this March even though the lawmakers lined up to debate on the bill have not yet finished the interpellation.
“Pass your paper tayo,” Alvarez said.
In a press conference, lawmakers from the independent minority bloc scored the drastic measures of the House leadership in forcing a vote on the bill.
Alvarez earlier threatened lawmakers that they would be stripped of their committee posts and deputy speaker positions if they went against the death penalty bill.
READ: Pro-life solon hits Alvarez for ‘arm-twisting’ death penalty
“Intimidate, entice and gag constitute the trio of strategies employed by Speaker Alvarez and the majority leadership to pass by hook or by crook House Bill No. 4727 reimposing the death penalty,” Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said.
Lagman scored the move of the House leadership to require lawmakers to finish their interpellation within an hour pursuant to the rules.
The leadership is invoking Section 91 of the Rules of the House which reads that any member should not be allowed to speak for more than one hour in the debate of any question.
Lagman said the one-hour allotment only covers the first salvo of the interpellation and not the time for other members to interpellate each other.
He said the chamber should not set a time limit for the members to thoroughly discuss the measure, warning that the limitations on the time to debate is an “anathema to deliberative assemblies worldwide.”
“There should be no target, Let the interchange of ideas reign at the House at the end of the day. After all, the debates have been completed. Let us vote by the time the members of the House are fully informed of the pros and cons of the measure,” Alvarez said.
Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin said Alvarez’s move to threaten lawmakers to support the death penalty is a “retrogressive approach in legislation.”
He scored the leadership’s willingness to railroad the restoration of the death penalty just to prove the political will of President Rodrigo Duterte in fulfilling his campaign promise to restore the death penalty, albeit an archaic policy of retributive justice.
“The death penalty as a form of vengeance, the concept of retributive justice, belongs to the dark ages. And it’s not even justice at all,” Villarin said.
The House bill is expected to limit crimes punishable with death to the most heinous, making the proposal more favorable to lawmakers, and indicating that the death penalty bill has better chances in the lower house than in the Senate.
READ: Solons had change of heart on capital punishment—House leader
The restoration of the death penalty faces a gridlock in the Senate as the lawmakers centered on the country’s obligations to the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which under the Second Optional Protocol states that “Each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction.”
READ: Solons torn between death penalty and international treaty
House Bill 4727 restoring death penalty is seen to be a priority legislation in the House of Representatives.
The bill seeks to impose the death penalty on more than 20 heinous offenses, such as rape with homicide, kidnapping for ransom and arson with death.
According to the original version of the bill, the following are punishable with death under the Revised Penal Code—treason, qualified piracy, qualified bribery, parricide, murder, infanticide, rape, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, robbery with homicide, rape, intentional mutilation or arson and destructive arson.
READ: IN THE KNOW: Death penalty
Plunder is also punishable with reclusion perpetua to death according to Republic Act 7080 or the plunder law as amended by Republic Act 7659.
Some lawmakers, however, believe plunder should not be punishable with death under the bill.
READ: ‘Plunder still in death penalty bill unless removed during amendments’
The following offenses under the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act are also punishable with death—importation; sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation; maintenance of a den, dive or resort; manufacture; possession of certain quantities of dangerous drugs; cultivation; unlawful prescription; misappropriation or failure to account confiscated, seized or surrendered dangerous drugs; and planting of evidence.
Carnapping is also a criminal offense punishable with death under the Anti-Carnapping Act or Republic Act 6539.
Justice committee chairperson, Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, said the House leadership is willing to reduce the list of crimes punishable with death only on the most heinous—drug trade and abuse, murder, kidnapping, carnapping and rape.
Umali said though that plunder may be removed from the list as it is not as heinous a crime as those committed against persons and life. RAM/rga
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