MANILA – Opposition senators said they will try their best to fight the re-imposition of capital punishment in the country as the growing number of senators in the 18th Congress openly endorsed its passage.
Senate Minority leader Franklin Drilon admitted it will be an uphill battle against the revival of death penalty but he vowed to fight “tooth and nail” to block the proposal with fellow opposition lawmakers.
“It will be a tough fight considering that it is an administration-backed legislation and a number of senators have openly endorsed its passage. Let alone our diminished number in the Senate,” Drilon said.
“Notwithstanding these difficulties we will do our best to prevent it. We will never allow the 18th Congress to give license to authorities to kill the poor,” he added.
Apart from Senate President Vicente Sotto III and senators Manny Pacquiao, Ronald dela Rosa, Panfilo Lacson, and Christopher Go, who authored the bill reviving death penalty, those who expressed support for it include senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Cynthia Villar, Imee Marcos, Aquilino Pimentel III, Juan Edgardo Angara, Pia Cayetano, Bong Revilla, Francis Tolentino, and Lito Lapid.
Drilon said given the inadequacies of the justice system, to revive the death penalty is to give a death sentence to the poor, who will be made victims of this cruel and inhumane punishment.
“It has been proven time and again that capital punishment is not an effective deterrent to crimes. Only the poor will be made victim of this measure,” Drilon said. “No justice will be served if it involves taking a life. Let’s be more rational, humane, independent, and conscientious in handling this very sensitive issue.”
Drilon said the anti-death penalty senators will count for support from the majority of Filipinos who expressed strong opposition to restoration of death penalty.
He added a Social Weather Stations survey last year showed that 7 out of 10 Filipinos were not in favor of imposing death penalty on a number of serious crimes.
Drilon said the protocol does not provide for any withdrawal or derogation mechanism, which means that parties to the protocol cannot reinstate death penalty without violating international law.
“Unless this issue is resolved, we cannot have a complete debate, because we will be back to the same question: can Philippines re-impose death penalty without any regard to our treaty obligation?” said Drilon./PN
