Death penalty bill unlikely to pass Senate before June—Sotto

Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Unlike the House of Representatives, the Senate may not be able to pass the death penalty bill before the 17th Congress adjourns its first regular session in June, Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said on Thursday.

The House approved the bill on second reading Wednesday night and is reportedly set to pass it on third and final reading on March 8. In the Senate, however, the proposal is still being tackled in the committee level.

READ: Death penalty bill inches closer to approval on Ash Wednesday

“Sa kanila (House), priority ang death penalty. Sa Senate hindi assured, hindi priority sa amin. Sa executive priority pero ganun talaga e, meron kaming, ika nga, demokrasya tayo,” Sotto said in an interview over DZMM.

(In the House, death penalty is a priority. In the Senate, there is no assurance, it’s not our priority. It’s also a priority of the executive, but this is democracy)

“Sa amin iti-take up namin ‘yan. Ipinangako naming iti-take up namin pero hindi namin maipangako na priority so hindi ko sigurado kung kaya naming ipasa ito by June, hindi ko kayang ipangako. Mahihirapan siguro, mahaba ang debate nito,” he said.

(We will take it up here in the Senate. We promised to take it up but we can’t promise that it’s a priority so I’m not sure if we can pass it by June, I can’t assure that. It might be difficult because there’s going to be a lengthy debate)

The Senate, he said, would nevertheless “try” to approve the bill before June.

Sotto, one of the authors of the bill, reiterated that he favors the reimposition of the death penalty but only for “high-level drug trafficking.”

Newly-installed Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto also believes that the proposed revival of the capital punishment would have a difficulty getting the approval of the Senate.

“It will be difficult to pass the death penalty bill at the Senate. Bills of this nature break the majority-minority divide,” said Recto, who is openly against the measure.

“There are a number of those in the majority who are anti-death penalty. There is no consensus for the death penalty at this time. It is not even included in our priority list of bills,” he added.

Aside from Recto, all six members of the Senate minority bloc are also against the bill. The six are Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Francis Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Leila de Lima, who is currently detained on drug charges.

Two other majority members — Senators Richard Gordon and Francis Escudero — are also against the measure./rga

READ: 9 senators express opposition to death penalty