Robredo: LP won’t sanction members supporting death penalty

Vice President Leni Robredo on Tuesday said the Liberal Party (LP) is against the reimposition of the death penalty, but it would not sanction its members who would vote for it.

Robredo was a resource person in the deliberations on the participatory governance and grassroots budgeting bills pending before the House people participation committee. She authored the people empowerment bill during her stint as Camarines Sur congresswoman in the 16th Congress.

In an interview with reporters, Robredo said the Liberal Party has released its position against House Bill 4727 seeking to reimpose the death penalty.

READ: Rights of accused protected in death penalty bill — Fariñas 

But the party would not sanction its members who would support the measure, with the effect of allowing the Liberals to vote based on conscience.

“Ang LP is against the re-imposition of the death penalty (the LP is against the reimposition of the death penalty),” said Robredo, who since winning the vice presidency is interim chairperson of the erstwhile ruling party of former president Benigno Aquino III.

READ: House leadership hit for railroading death penalty bill 

The Liberal Party was decimated at the turn of the new administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose political party the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) gained numbers as former Liberals jumped ship.

“Ang napagdesisyunan, kahit may party stand, walang sanctions ang hindi susunod (What’s decided upon is that even if there is a party stand, there will be no sanction against those who would not follow),” Robredo said.

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Robredo has taken the role of the opposition in the administration of Duterte, who eased out the vice president from his Cabinet due to their differing positions on administration policies like the death penalty and the narcotics war.

The Liberal Party members in the House of Representatives were decimated to only 32 members of the 290-strong chamber in the 17th Congress.

The House version of the death penalty would be amended to limit the heinous crimes under death row to drug-related offenses, plunder, treason and rape.
READ: House leadership hit for railroading death penalty bill 

Meanwhile, the death penalty bill in the Senate hit a gridlock after senators 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.

The vote on the bill under second reading at the House of Representatives is scheduled on Feb. 28, after barely a month of plenary debates. JE

READ: Solons torn between death penalty and international treaty