Former president and now Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Wednesday said she would support the legislative agenda of President Rodrigo Duterte—even the reimposition of the death penalty which she abolished in 2006.
In a chance interview with Arroyo after she donated dialysis equipment at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center (VMMC), Arroyo repeated the same line to every question about her stance on pertinent issues of the Duterte administration, including the reimposition of death penalty.
Arroyo went back to the VMMC on Wednesday to lead the donation of dialysis equipment, almost three weeks since was ordered released from hospital detention by the Supreme Court that dismissed her plunder charge over the alleged misuse of P366 million in Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) intelligence funds from 2008 to 2010.
READ: SC junks remaining Arroyo plunder case, sets her free | Arroyo walks free after 4 yrs of hospital detention
“I’m not going to comment on anything. As I said, my general direction is to support the legislative agenda of the president,” Arroyo said.
When asked about her comment on the restoration of capital punishment, Arroyo changed tune and made it a point that she was no longer the country’s chief executive.
Arroyo said as congresswoman, it is her duty to support the administration’s agenda.
“Basta, I have a general direction. And It’s not—I am not the chief executive anymore. It is not for me to dictate national policies. So that’s why,” Arroyo said.
“I listened very closely to (Duterte’s) State of the Nation Address. I believe my role as a congresswoman is that we should support the legislative agenda of the administration… Even if you ask me the same questions, I will give you the same general answer,” she added.
READ: IN THE KNOW: Death penalty
In 2006, Arroyo signed into law Republic Act 9346, which abolished death penalty because it failed as a deterrent to crime.
The law puts in its place life imprisonment as a penalty against heinous criminals.
President Duterte has vowed in his election campaign to restore death penalty, even by hanging, as part of his war against drugs.
Duterte’s ally Speaker Pantaleon “Bebot” Alvarez first filed the bill seeking to reimpose death penalty, repealing the law signed by Arroyo.
READ: First bill in Congress seeks reinstatement of death penalty
Alvarez’s bill sought to reimpose death penalty on heinous crimes listed under Republic Act 7659, including murder, plunder, rape, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, sale, use and possession of illegal drugs, carnapping with homicide, among others.
The bill sought to reenact into the law Republic Act 8177 which designated lethal injection as a method of carrying out capital punishment.
In the bill he co-authored with deputy speaker Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro, Alvarez said there is a need to reimpose death penalty because “the national crime rate has grown to such alarming proportions requiring an all-out offensive against all forms of felonious acts.”
“Philippine society is left with no option but to deal with certain grievous offenders in a manner commensurate to the gravity, perversity, atrociousness and repugnance of their crimes,” according to the bill.
Arroyo had filed a resolution calling for a hybrid constitutional convention to amend the 1987 Constitution, in support of Duterte’s legislative agenda of changing the system of government from unitary to federal. CDG
READ: Arroyo calls for ‘hybrid’ Constitutional Convention