House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is so desperate for the death penalty to be restored that he now says members of Congress not in favor of it can expect to lose their committee chairmanships.
The last time we looked, lawmakers were free to support or reject any piece of legislation based on the dictates of their conscience—and, ideally, the will of their constituents.
It is no surprise that Mr. Alvarez would be the prime advocate of the restoration of the death penalty. He has been the quintessential yes-man to his boss and friend, President Rodrigo Duterte. And we know, all too well, how these men treat life and death so lightly—just look at the 7,000 deaths in the name of the war on drugs.
Alas, most Filipinos have yet to work up the voice to cry foul against these unwarranted killings. It is likely they are afraid. Maybe they honestly believe we are on to a good thing.
Certainly bringing back a method of punishment better suited to old, barbaric times is never a good thing. And that’s assuming all judgments are correct and fair—a pipe dream here in the Philippines, where law enforcement and the justice system leave much to be desired.
But pushing for the death penalty is the prerogative of anybody —even Alvarez. What is unacceptable is the way he uses it to make his colleagues toe the line if they supposedly know what is good for them. This is not what we have in mind when we think of him as leader of the House.
We can only hope that the senators would be more enlightened about the issue, even as one of them—a supposedly religious man who has built his fortune dealing blows to others—insists even God had his own version of capital punishment.
We will be watching these lawmakers in the next few days. We’ll see if they will allow Alvarez to get to them with his message of death.