Philippine house passes death penalty bill

MANILA: The Philippine House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a controversial bill that restores the death penalty in the country.

The House approved the bill, which seeks to reimpose capital punishment for drug-related crimes, on third and final reading with 216 affirmative votes, Xinhua news agency reported.

Fifty-four lawmakers voted against the measure and one abstained, the Philippine Star reported.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who took office in June last year, has vigorously pushed for the reimposition of capital punishment, saying it is an effective deterrent against heinous crimes.

The bill seeks to punish the perpetrators of eight drug offences with either life imprisonment or death.

Its original heinous crimes, draft included 21 including plunder, rape and treason. However, the number of crimes was lowered after a house caucus agreed to remove plunder, rape and treason from the list, and then limited only to drugrelated crimes.

“We agreed the bill will only be limited to drug-related heinous crimes,” Oriental Mindoro Representative Reynaldo Umali, chair of the House Justice committee, said last week.

However, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez did not discount the possibility that the crimes originally stipulated in the bill he proposed months ago could be restored in the bill in the bicameral conference committee.

According to the Philippines Star, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, one of the fiercest opponents of the measure, criticised the majority for its rush to pass the bill.