House of Representatives. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Members of the House of Representatives are being prevented from interpellating in the debate on the death penalty bill in the plenary in a bid to railroad the passage of the reimposition of capital punishment, opposition lawmakers said.
In a press conference on Tuesday at the House of Representatives, Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin said he had heard of “misinformation” that lawmakers would not be allowed to interpellate in the debate on the death penalty bill on the floor if they were members of the committees on rules and of justice.
“There (is) information that if you are members of the committee on justice, you’re not allowed to interpellate, and if you’re a member of the rules committee, you have no right to interpellate, in the plenary debates,” Villarin said.
Villarin said he was alarmed by the move to prevent lawmakers from speaking out against death penalty, calling it an attempt to “stifle” the opposition.
“This kind of misinformation, isa sa mga panakot dun sa mga members (is a way to scare the members) of Congress not to speak up against the death penalty… This move to silence members of the House not to speak up in any way is alarming,” Villarin said.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said this move reeks of being an “undeclared or de facto martial law” in Congress.
Lagman said the Philippines is a signatory to the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 that prescribes life imprisonment, not death penalty, for any crimes.
“In that convention, the treaty prescribes only imprisonment, and not death, on crimes related to drugs. We cannot violate our treaty commitments,” Lagman said.
Lagman reiterated his call on the House leadership led by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to allow a conscience vote instead of a party vote on the death penalty.
READ: Opposition solons call for ‘conscience vote’ on death penalty
A party vote would have railroaded the bill especially in the lower house dominated by a supermajority of allies of President Rodrigo Duterte, who campaigned on the promise of restoring capital punishment.
Lagman called on Alvarez to allow members “to exercise a conscience vote to have a free and liberated position.”
The legislation restoring the death penalty is seen to be a priority legislation in the House of Representatives.
READ: Death penalty ‘priority’ bill of lower house — Umali
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.
The bill is expected to undergo sponsorship plenary debates under second reading next week, according to Majority Leader Rudy Fariñas. It hurdled the committee level last December.
READ: House Justice committee approves death penalty bill
Alvarez, Duterte’s staunch ally in Congress, was among those who filed the bill seeking to reimpose the death penalty after former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo abolished capital punishment in 2006 for its failure to deter crime.
Alvarez filed the bill pursuant to President Duterte’s campaign promise to return capital punishment for heinous crime.
READ: First bill in Congress seeks reinstatement of death penalty
Alvarez’s bill sought to reimpose the death penalty for 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.
In the bill he co-authored, Alvarez said there is a need to reimpose the 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.
Duterte won the elections on a campaign promise to restore the death penalty by hanging, even remarking that the convict’s head should be severed by hanging. Alvarez said Congress would look into the cheapest way to carry out the death penalty, either by firing squad, lethal injection or by hanging. RAM/rga
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