Sotto rethinks death penalty

Senator Vicente Sotto lll. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, author of a death penalty bill, is now “neutral” on proposals to revive capital punishment in the country, one of the main thrusts of the 17th Congress under the administration of President Duterte.

In an interview on Tuesday night, Sotto said he was reconsidering his stand on the reinstatement of death penalty and had filed a bill imposing such so lawmakers could discuss it on the Senate floor.

“I was the principal author of the reimposition of the death penalty for drug trafficking in the 9th Congress. Somewhere along the way, two or three years ago, I think I lost it. I think I was favoring more on not reimposing the death penalty,” Sotto said.

“I saw some prisoners who are really innocent, it’s scary. Then I also noticed, I saw in my research, that if you really want to make them suffer, jail them in bad conditions … If you ask me now if I’m in favor of the death penalty or not, I filed the bill so we can discuss it. I still have to make up my mind,” he added.

Sotto sought the revival of the death penalty law through lethal injection in 2014 through Senate Bill No. 2080, which proposed to repeal Republic Act No. 9346 or “An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines … ”

In his debut privilege speech in the Senate, Sen. Manny Pacquiao said he had filed Senate Bill No. 185 or “An Act to Impose the Death Penalty and Increased Penalties on Certain Heinous Crimes Involving Dangerous Drugs … ”

In the House of Representatives, the first bill filed in the new Congress by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez also sought to reinstate death penalty on heinous crimes through lethal injection.

Despite his neutral stance now, Sotto maintained that he and majority of the senators would “most probably” vote in favor of death penalty if it will be imposed only on high-level drug traffickers.

“If we’re specific with high-level drug trafficking, then I might, most probably I will be in favor. A high-level drug lord is clearly guilty. There’s no such thing as an innocent drug lord,” Sotto said.