Church to go all out vs death penalty bill

The Catholic Church will exhaust all legal means if and when the death penalty law is passed.

Rodolfo Diamante, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Episcopal Comand mission on Prison and Pastoral Care, said among their options is to question its constitutionality in the Supreme Court (SC).

Meantime, the Liberal Party (LP) maintained its stand against the proposed bill while a party-list representative said his pro-death penalty colleagues have the numbers to pass and approve the controversial measure.

Going to SC “We will go to the Supreme Court. We will exhaust all legal means available because we believe that it is unconstitutional. It is cruel. It is inhumane,” Diamante said during the Tapatan forum in Manila, Monday.

Diamante said the Church can wait for the “test case” of a person being included in the death row.

“We can do it when a person convicted and penalized with death penalty files a case to the SC and say that it is unconstitutional,” he said.

This way, Diamante said the case won’t be dismissed because there is a victim.

The CBCP official said another option is for lawmakers who ratified the country’s international treaty obligation against death penalty to also question it before the SC since they can easily invoke the violation of the country’s commitment to the United Nations’ International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

“The argument could be since the country has already signed the treaty, a Senator can easily claim that he/she is affected since he/she was among those that ratified it. Therefore, they can file a case before the SC,” said Diamante.

According to the church official, they are also seeking the opinion of the international community on the matter.

Pro-death penalty numbers Meantime, ABANG-LINGKOD partylist Rep. Joseph Stephen Paduano, who is anti-death penalty, said that colleagues pushing for the contentious measure have the numbers to pass it.

“Kung ako tatanungin niyo (If you will ask me), the ‘yes’ vote in the House has now the numbers. May numero na (they have the numbers),” said Paduano, a vice chair of the Committee on Natural Resources a Majority member for various key committees.

“I’m a member of the Visayan bloc. Last week we had a meeting. Out of 41 congressmen of the Visayas bloc that’s headed by Negros Occidental Rep. Albee Benitez, anim lang siguro kami na ‘no’ (only six of us voted ‘no’),” Paduano said.

A ‘no’ for LP The Liberal Party (LP) maintained yesterday its stand against the re-imposition of the death penalty.

“This has been our stand since 2006, when we voted to abolish the death penalty, and the reasons for our vote remain: It has repeatedly proven to be ineffective, it is overwhelmingly inflicted on the poor and powerless, it is imposed by a fallible and flawed justice system, and it violates international laws the Philippine nation has sworn to abide by,’’ the LP stated.

In a position paper issued by Sen. Francis Pangilinan, LP president, the LP recommended instead that the national government strengthen its criminal justice system to deter criminals in the country.

Pangilinan said the LP recommends that the administration convene the Joint Judicial Executive Legislative Advisory and Consultative Council to allow the three branches of government to coordinate and come up with concrete solutions for reform.