CONGRESS has omitted plunder, rape, treason and other heinous crimes from the death penalty bill but there is still a chance to include them once the measure reaches the bicameral conference committee, Rep. Reynaldo Umali said Sunday.
He said the heinous crimes that had been omitted from the bill could also be added especially if President Rodrigo Duterte made an appeal to include them.
“Everything is possible during the bicam, but I don’t want to preempt the decision of the panel,” said Umali, the chairman of the House committee on justice and the sponsor of the death penalty bill.
That bill is set for approval on the third and final reading on Tuesday.
Umali said Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez was expected to explain to Duterte why Congress excluded plunder and rape on the list of the 22 original crimes punishable by capital punishment.
“That is the overwhelming consensus of the members of the super majority. If we will be called by the President, we will explain that to him. But for sure, the Speaker will take charge of that,” Umali said.
“There is nothing wrong if the bicameral panel will put plunder and rape among the crimes punishable by death,” Rep. Gustavo Tambunting said.
“I was in favor of plunder, too. However, it was decided that we focus on drug-related crimes first. Looks like it [death penalty bill] has a better chance of passing the Senate if it’s limited to drugs.”
Rep. Fredenil Castro said an amendment was still possible even if the bill became law.
“Other crimes that call for the death penalty may be the subject of a subsequent amendatory law that may be passed by Congress,” Castro said.
To limit the death penalty to drug-related crimes could make the bill easier to pass in Congress and the Senate, he said.
Duterte had questioned the removal of plunder and rape on the list of heinous crimes punishable with death.
As the Catholic Church was observing Ash Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved the measure through a voice vote.
The bill seeks to punish at least seven major drug-related offenses punishable by capital punishment.