Who’s for death? Solons not telling

Panfilo Lacson. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

SENATORS are playing their cards close to their chest with regard to their stand on the reimposition of the death penalty, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said on Sunday.

Lacson said he expected a heavy debate when the issue was brought up for discussion on the floor.

Lacson, along with Sen. Vicente Sotto III, had filed a separate bill on the revival of the death penalty law, which covered heinous crimes and called for the penalty of lethal injection for those convicted of these crimes. The law was repealed in 2006.

But Lacson said the law was just “suspended” and their bill called for its reinstatement.

Lacson, who is part of the supermajority that will elect Aquilino Pimentel III as Senate President when the new Congress opens on July 25, is expected to be nominated  chair of the committee on public order and drugs that would oversee hearings on the death penalty bills.

Interviewed on radio, Lacson said he anticipated a lengthy discussion of the issue and intended to “maximize the participation” of all sectors for and against the death penalty.

Asked whether the Senate would be able to approve the bill within three to four months as Pimentel had earlier projected, Lacson  said that time frame might not suffice.

He said public hearings could be held to get input from all sectors but it would be a different matter when the issue is discussed on the Senate floor.

Asked whether he believed he could get the necessary votes to approve the death penalty bill, he said the senators were not disclosing their positions on the issue, just as they were silent about whether they were for the shift to a federal form of government.

Aside from pushing for the reimposition of the death penalty, Duterte also wants his administration to seriously consider amendments to the Constitution to allow a federal form of government.

Saying he was aware Sen. Leila de Lima was against the death penalty, Lacson said he did not think she would sit on the measures or even derail them.

De Lima is likely to be nominated chair of the justice committee, the secondary committee expected to hear the death penalty bills.

Still, Lacson said, there could be remedies in the Senate rules they could resort to in order to ensure the action on the bills would not be delayed.

De Lima bill

Meanwhile, De Lima said she would file a bill that would ensure the provision of justice for victims, especially of heinous crimes, without resorting to capital punishment.

De Lima, who served as justice secretary in the Benigno S. Aquino III administration, has been very vocal about her opposition to the return of the death penalty. She said in text messages she would come up with an alternative bill and that she was in the process of “fine-tuning” it.

She said she was pushing for a bill that “ensures justice, especially to victims of heinous crimes, without resort to the extreme capital punishment which is antipoor, un-Christian and probably in contravention of the restorative philosophy under our correctional system.”

Sen. Risa Hontiveros shared the same sentiment, being part of the movement for restorative justice that abolished the death penalty in 2006.