SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez on Tuesday said the House of Representatives was hopeful of passing the proposal seeking to reimpose death penalty on heinous crimes before Congress would have its Yuletide break on December 16.
Alvarez made the statement as the House subcommittee on judicial reforms, chaired by Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso, approved the measure contained in a consolidated version, including House Bill 1 authored by Alvarez himself.
But Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, one of the oppositors to the death penalty bill, denounced its approval.
The approved version of the measure will then be submitted to the House committee on justice, chaired by Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, for consideration.
“The railroading has started,” Lagman said, questioning the absence of a committee report prior to the approval of the measure.
Alvarez filed HB 1 which seeks to reimpose death penalty on heinous crimes, like human trafficking, illegal recruitment, plunder, treason, parricide, infanticide, rape, qualified piracy and bribery, kidnapping and illegal detention, robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons, car theft, destructive arson, terrorism and drug-related cases.
“There is evidently a need to reinvigorate the war against criminality by reviving a proven deterrent coupled by its consistent, persistent and determined implementation, and this need is as compelling and critical as any,” Alvarez said in his HB No. 1.
“The imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes and the mode of its implementation, both subjects of repealed laws, are crucial components of an effective dispensation of both reformative and retributive justice,” the bill stated.
Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law was abolished in 1986 during the term of then President Corazon Aquino.
It was restored by president Fidel V. Ramos in 1993, and was suspended again in 2006 by then President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
President Rodrigo Duterte said he would want the capital punishment by hanging reimposed, vowing to carry out at least 50 executions a month to serve as a strong deterrent against criminality.
Alvarez lamented that the rise of criminality in the country had reached an “alarming proportion” and the government must do an “all-out offensive against all forms of felonious acts.”