Poe questions timing of death penalty revival

Senator Grace Poe.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Senator Grace Poe questioned the timing of restoring the death penalty being pushed by President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies in the House of Representatives when death seems to be currently the “all-encompassing” solution to solve the country’s problems

This, as she disclosed that the proposal to revive the capital punishment is now almost a “dead heat” in the Senate.

READ: Pimentel: Senators divided over death penalty revival

“They were doing a count so there’s like a difference of one or two,” Poe said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel’s “Headstart” on Tuesday.

For her part, the senator reiterated her position when she was running for president in the last elections that she would only favor the restoration of the death penalty if it was done simultaneously with judicial and enforcement reforms.

BACKSTORY: Poe, Duterte support death penalty revival

“Of course, you have both sides trying to convince me…” Poe said, noting that the death penalty could be a deterrent to crime at least for certain foreigners who are thinking of setting up a shabu laboratory in the country.

“But you know, seeing what’s been happening around the country now, when death seems to be like the all-encompassing solution to solve problems, I’m not sure it’s the time unless we can show that we can throw judges in jail for taking bribes and we’re serious that we are not taking sides,” she said.

READ: No death penalty? No problem; just kill the criminals

Also instead of imposing death, Poe also preferred life imprisonment for plunderers.

“What I’m worried about… is the planting of evidence and we know that in government, there could be political motives also so maplantahan ka lang ng isang audit report (if a malicious audit report is pinned on you)…” she said.

“So ito lang ang sasabihin ko (this is what I have to say), they should be serious in enforcing the law of life imprisonment for plunder at least,” the senator added.

Plunder was excluded from the list of offenses that a measure in the House wants to be punished by death. IDL/rga