Philippines set to bring back death penalty
Print Edition
THE Philippine House of Representatives yesterday approved a bill to restore the death penalty by hanging, lethal injection or firing squad for drug offenses despite opposition from the influential Roman Catholic church and human rights groups.
The House said 216 members approved the proposed legislation, 54 voted against it and one abstained yesterday, bringing nearer to reality President Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign promise to restore capital punishment for hardcore criminals, especially drug traffickers.
The death penalty could have been applicable for several crimes, including economic plunder in a country rife with corruption scandals, under earlier House bill versions but lawmakers later agreed to allow it only for drug offenses, including production and trafficking.
House bill 4727 must be merged with the version being debated in the Senate and then signed by Duterte to become a law. Both chambers of Congress are dominated by Duterte’s allies.
Proponents argue the death penalty would help fight the drug menace, which Duterte has elevated to a national security threat. His anti-drug crackdown has left thousands of drug suspects dead since he took office in June.
The issue has long been divisive in the Philippines, Asia’s bastion of Catholicism that has also grappled with widespread crime. Capital punishment was abolished in 1987 but restored in 1993 for heinous crimes such as murder and child rape. Seven people were executed in that period. Then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo again abolished the death penalty in 2006.
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