THE leaders of the House of Representatives will be stripped of their posts if they vote against the passage of the Palace-backed death penalty bill, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said on Wednesday.
He said the members of the House would have to toe the line or resign if they refused.
“It is a party stand. If you do not agree with the party stand, you might as well quit,” Alvarez told reporters before the holding of a caucus of the administration’s Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan.
He said the House leadership will pass the death penalty bill at all costs and even at the expense of losing his speakership.
Alvarez, the principal author of the bill, said the policy will apply to all deputy speakers and committee chairmen.
“The deputy speakers who will not support the bill [will] be replaced”•otherwise they will be in an awkward situation if they do not agree with the leadership,” Alvarez said.
That was contrary to his earlier pronouncement that the anti-death-penalty lawmakers belonging to the majority would not be penalized for it.
But Rep. Lito Atienza slammed the House leadership’s “arm-twisting” tactic to force lawmakers to vote for the bill.
“The minority has not forced anyone to take his position. As you can see, we are free to follow our own conscience. It is a sad day for the 17th Congress if Speaker Alvarez is twisting the arms of the majority,” Atienza told reporters.
He warned Alvarez for forcing the members of the House to vote for the passage of the death penalty bill.
“That is threatening, arm-twisting, coercion,” Atienza said.
“The issue of the death penalty is a matter of principle”•whether you value life or you value something else.”
Atienza said he was hopeful that the lawmakers would not succumb to the pressure and “arm-twisting” tactic of the House leadership under Alvarez.
The Death Penalty Law was abolished in 1986 during the term of President Corazon Aquino.
It was restored by President Fidel V. Ramos in 1993 and was again suspended in 2006 by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The House committee on justice earlier approved the measure contained in a consolidated version, including House Bill 1 authored Alvarez.
Alvarez filed HB 1 that seeks to reimpose the death penalty on heinous crimes such as human trafficking, illegal recruitment, plunder, treason, parricide, infanticide, rape, qualified piracy and bribery, kidnapping and illegal detention, robbery with violence, car theft, destructive arson, terrorism and drug-related cases.
Alvarez earlier stressed the need for Congress “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.
“The imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes and the mode of its implementation are crucial components of an effective dispensation of both reformative and retributive justice,” the bill says.
President Rodrigo Duterte has said he wants capital punishment by hanging reimposed.
He has also vowed to carry out at least 50 executions a month to serve as a strong deterrent against criminality.