Pimentel defends Senate pace in legislating laws

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Senate has not failed to help in the Duterte administration’s legislative agenda and its only perceived “shortcoming” is the restoration of the death penalty and even that is already in the works, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said on Friday.

“It should only be singular not plural because Speaker (Pantaleon Alvarez) is referring to only one measure, which he is frustrated about, the death penalty bill,” Pimentel told reporters.

The Senate president was reacting to Alvarez’ swipe at the pace of legislation at the Senate, citing the death penalty bill that has been languishing at the Senate since last March.

READ: Alvarez to ‘defensive’ Pimentel: Admit Senate’s shortcomings

The House of Representatives passed House Bill 4727, restoring capital punishment in the country, last March 7, with 217 votes in favor, 54 against and one abstention.

The Senate, however, has not even discussed three death penalty bills that Sen. Manny Paquiao filed in 2016.

A month after the House passed HB 4727, senators said the proposal was dead in the Senate since only five senators have supported it.

The supportive senators are Pacquiao, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III and Senators Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, and Cynthia Villar.

Even Pimentel said during the opening of the second regular session last year that the proposal was “not really in the radar.”

However, Pimentel said on Friday the Senate will begin discussing the matter this year. “Hence, the Speaker’s concern is already addressed,” he said.

Sotto also defended the Senate legislative pace, saying while deliberations may be “slow,” it was certainly “sure.”

But mustering a majority still appears to be uncertain at the Senate with most senators expressed opposition to the restoration of capital punishment in the country.

In 1987, the Philippines became the first Asian country to abolish capital punishment, but the Ramos administration reinstated it in 1993 amid a crime wave.

It was again outlawed in 2006 with the backing of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is now a congresswoman of Pampanga.

Arroyo, a deputy speaker, even risked losing her current position in the House when she voted against HB 4727 along with 53 others.

HB 4727 originally sought to impose the death penalty on 21 crimes, but that was reduced to four crimes and further trimmed to only drug-related offenses.

Other prominent lawmakers who voted against the bill were Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, Batangas Rep. Vilma Santos-Recto, members of the Makabayan bloc, and those from the Liberal Party. /jpv