Anti-death penalty Arroyo has to go as deputy speaker – Alvarez
Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (Photo by LYN RILLON/Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday said former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo, who abolished the death penalty during her administration, will also have to go if she opposes the restoration of capital punishment.
This was the bad news of Alvarez for Arroyo, a deputy speaker in the 17th Congress, to underscore that he is true to his word that those who would oppose the bill restoring the death penalty will have to relinquish their posts as deputy speakers or committee chairpersons.
“We have to replace her as deputy speaker. I already asked the majority leader to talk to her (Arroyo),” Alvarez said.
Alvarez led a caucus among the members of the majority on Wednesday, when the majority agreed not to make death mandatory in the death penalty bill.
Alvarez said the death penalty would also include life imprisonment as an option for judges in convicting heinous criminals.
Arroyo was the first lawmaker to walk out of the caucus. She refused interviews with the media.
Article continues after this advertisementArroyo appointed Alvarez as Transportation secretary during her administration.
Article continues after this advertisementArroyo has earlier expressed her opposition to the bill.
In a December 5, 2016 press conference, Arroyo said she has talked to President Rodrigo Duterte who assured her that there would be no problem if she opposes the death penalty.
“I spoke with President Duterte about that, it’s alright with him if I oppose the death penalty,” said Arroyo, who abolished death penalty when she was president in 2006.
The House leadership is forcing a vote on the death penalty following a gridlock in the Senate.
Alvarez said the ruling political party Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) will come up with a party stand on the death penalty. At least 100 of the 290-strong chamber are from the PDP-Laban.
He also called on deputy speakers and committee chairpersons to relinquish their posts if they do not vote for the bill.
READ: House leadership forces vote on death penalty
At least nine of the 24 senators have expressed opposition to the death penalty as the Senate started its committee deliberations on the restoration of capital punishment.
Meanwhile, 10 are pro-death penalty, while four are pushing for capital punishment only on drug-related cases.
The Senate deliberations 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 which seeks to restore death penalty is seen as a priority legislation in the House of Representatives.
The bill seeks to impose death penalty on more than 20 heinous offenses, such as rape with homicide, kidnapping for ransom, and arson with death.
READ: Death penalty ‘priority’ bill of lower house — Umali
Speaker Alvarez, Duterte’s staunch ally in Congress, was among the authors of the bill after Arroyo abolished capital punishment in 2006 for its failure to deter crime.
Alvarez filed the bill pursuant to Duterte’s campaign promise of returning capital punishment against heinous criminals.
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 with deputy speaker Capiz Rep. Fredenil Castro, 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 making a snide remark that the convict’s head should be severed by hanging. Alvarez said Congress would look into the cheapest way for the death penalty, either by firing squad, lethal injection or by hanging.
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