Lawmakers urged to cross party lines against death penalty

Senator Leila de Lima has called on lawmakers to cross party lines as they deliberate on the measure calling for the immediate reinstatement of the death penalty as capital punishment for heinous crimes.

De Lima made her appeal as the House leadership called members of the so-called supermajority for a party stand on the death penalty measure.

“The issue of possible re-imposition of death penalty is addressed more to the conscience of the members of both houses of Congress,” De Lima said in an interview.

“Lawmakers should transcend political affiliations in this particular issue, especially with the points raised by some members of the Senate that treaty commitment cannot be taken for granted,” she stressed.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez earlier threatened House members, particularly those holding key positions or chairmanships in his chamber, to strip them from their posts if they refuse to support President Rodrigo Duterte’s call to restore the death penalty.

Unlike in the House of Representatives, the Senate has different dynamics and thus will deliberate on the measure “based on the cogency and the soundness of the arguments and would not succumb to any type of coercion or arm-twisting.”

“I won’t be surprised anymore if iyan ang tactic nila palagi. But that is something that they cannot do, hopefully, here in the Senate. That’s why mas mahihirapan sila dito sa Senado,” she said.

The joint Senate committees on justice and human rights and constitutional amendments and revision of codes and laws earlier decided to suspend public hearing on death penalty to review the implications of the country’s commitment to treaties and international agreements which prohibit executions and compel member states to abolish death penalty.

The Philippines is signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to the Second Optional Protocol of the ICCPR, as well as in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties which states that “treaties which do not have provisions on withdrawal or denunciation cannot be denounced or be withdrawn from.” (With a report from Samuel Medenilla)