BREAKING: Lacson officially withdraws death penalty bill

(FILE PHOTO) Senator Panfilo Lacson in Imus, Cavite. Screengrab from Lacson’s Facebook livestream

MANILA, Philippines — Presidential aspirant Senator Panfilo Lacson officially withdraws his authorship of a bill seeking to reinstitute the death penalty for heinous crimes in the country.

In a letter to Senate Secretary Atty. Myra Villarica dated Nov. 8, Lacson also requested that his bill, Senate Bill No. 27, no longer be considered for deliberation by the Senate panels concerned.

Earlier, Lacson said he would no longer push for the revival of the death penalty in the country over concerns of wrongful convictions.

“Mas mainam na ang guilty ikulong habang buhay sa halip na inosente ma-execute dahil sa pagkakamali (Better that the guilty be imprisoned for life than to have innocents executed because of a wrong judgment),” Lacson said in a statement Tuesday.

Instead of reinstituting the death penalty, Lacson said life imprisonment and penal reforms would be a better alternative.

He also supported the suggestion of his vice-presidential running mate, Senate President Vicente Sotto III, to confine “drug lords” in a “supermax” penitentiary, with no means of communication with the outside world.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) earlier thanked Lacson and Sotto for withdrawing their support for the death penalty, expressing hopes that this would end calls to reinstate capital punishment.

Recently, another presidential aspirant, Senator Manny Pacquiao, changed his tune on the revival of the death penalty, saying the country’s judicial system should first be fixed.

JPV