Death penalty to exclude plunder

Pro-death penalty lawmakers have agreed to exclude plunder in crimes punishable by death, in case the administration’s legislative measure is passed in Congress.

In an interview over radio station dzRH yesterday, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said this was the consensus reached at last Wednesday’s caucus of the super majority coalition allied with President Duterte.

Applied only to government officials, whether elected or appointed, plunder is a crime of illegally acquiring at least P50 million from public funds, or as a result of using one’s office to enrich oneself.

Alvarez said the crime of plunder falls under a “special law” with the maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

The death penalty was abolished in 2006 under former president and now Deputy Speaker Gloria Arroyo.

As such, former president Joseph Estrada was meted a life term when he was convicted of plunder in September 2007.

Alvarez also defended the House leadership’s decision to observe a party vote on the

death penalty, saying it is his job to push the administration’s legislative agenda. Alvarez is the secretary-general of the country’s ruling political party PDP-Laban and, as Speaker, the titular head of the almost 300-member House of Representatives.

The Congress head added he is ready to vacate his post if the House members do not like his leadership anymore, even as he warned them to toe the party line on the death penalty issue or leave the coalition.

Last Wednesday, Alvarez said even Arroyo – under whose presidency he served as transportation and communications secretary – faces removal from her post as deputy speaker if she opts to vote against the revival of the death penalty.

But Arroyo made clear earlier she would abstain from voting on death penalty bills, even as she is against its revival.

In a separate radio interview with Gerry Baja over dzMM also yesterday, Alvarez said the Duterte administration is looking at passing the death penalty bill by mid-March, before Congress goes on the Lenten break.

Sacrificing principles

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) tasked to care for prisoners said lawmakers against the death penalty must not sacrifice their principles by allowing themselves to be pressured by Alvarez’s threat for them to abide by the party vote or leave the coalition.

“It is our hope and prayer that our representatives will follow their conscience in voting for the taking away of the life of the person,” CBCP Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care executive secretary Rodolfo Diamante said in a statement yesterday. “Moreover, they should not sacrifice their principles in a measure that will only satisfy the ego of the present leaders in the House. It is not worth it to pass a law that will not really serve justice to people concerned.”

More antis than pros

At the Senate, Sen. Richard Gordon said senators opposing the death penalty outnumber those in favor.

Gordon is against the death penalty’s revival. He is the chairman of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, which began hearing on the measure last week.

Gordon said he and Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III had counted 10 senators in favor of the death penalty out of the 24-seat Senate.

Those who have expressed disapproval of the measure are Sens. Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Leila de Lima, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV, Francis Escudero and minority leader Ralph Recto.

De Lima urged her colleagues to cross party lines when the revival of the death penalty is put to a vote.

“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 told reporters yesterday.

“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.”

Drilon said the Philippines would have a bad image of not honoring an agreement if the death penalty is revived.

Over station Bombo Radyo Dagupan, Drilon claimed in an interview that under the Constitution, treaties entered into by the Philippines are parts of laws that must be obeyed in the country.