Senate revives death penalty debate

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Wednesday, September 23, delivered a privilege speech to call for the revival of the death penalty because of what he described as the Philippines’ worsening crime situation.

“Let me ask my colleagues, especially Senator Koko Pimentel who is my good friend, to revisit the issue of death penalty. There are now compelling reasons to do so. The next crime may be nearer to our homes if not yet there,” Sotto said in his speech. 

Pimentel, chairman of the Senate committee on justice, said he would conduct a “nationwide hearing” to get public sentiment on the matter.

Sotto already filed in January 2015 Senate Bill 2080 titled “An Act Imposing Death Penalty in the Philippines.” It has since been pending in the committee on constitutional amendments and revision of laws.  The bill seeks to repeal Republic Act 9346, the 2006 law that prohibits death penalty in the Philippines. 

Sotto revived the issue following the death of the mother of actress Cherry Pie Picache, saying the perpetrators must have been under the influence of illegal drugs. Sotto is himself a former entertainer.

In June 2014, the Philippine National Police reported a surge in crime – an increase in total crime volume in the first 5 months of the year compared to the same period in 2013.

“The law of revenge in the hands of each one of us was given to the government. We in government  must yield that power now or else we will regret its absence in our future,” Sotto said. 

Earlier, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) warned against “attempts by advocacy groups to lobby the legislature for the restoration of the death penalty.”

In a statement on July 2, CBCP president Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas also said the “imperfection of our judicial system” could lead to injustice if the Philippines restores the death penalty.

Villegas said: “There is something terribly self-contradictory about the death penalty, for it is inflicted precisely in social retaliation to the violence unlawfully wielded by offenders. But in carrying out the death penalty, the state assumes the very posture of violence that it condemns!”

President Benigno Aquino III and Justice Secretary Leila De Lima also earlier said they are reluctant to consider it. – Rappler.com