Sept. 21
PHILIPPINES:
28 solons revive bid to repeal Death Penalty Law
A group of lawmakers on Tuesday pledged to move for the speedy enactment
of measures to repeal the Death Penalty Law.
Crossing party lines, 28 congressmen led by party-list Rep. Loretta Ann
Rosales of Akbayan and Aksyon Demokratiko Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay
launched the "Legislators Against Death Penalty," which will take the lead
in pushing for the scrapping of capital punishment.
Rosales, chairman of the Committee on Civil, Political and Human Rights,
challenged Malacaang to include the death penalty abolition in its list of
priority legislative bills, and called on President Arroyo to reimpose the
moratorium on executions instead of merely issuing reprieves every time a
death convict is scheduled for execution by lethal injection.
Rosales said at least 11 House bills and three Senate bills-all seeking
the repeal of the Death Penalty Lawhave been pending. "We will work double
time to convince more legislators and ensure that these antideath penalty
measures will be enacted into law during this Congress."
In the previous Congress, more than 150 congressmen signed up with a
resolution abolishing the Death Penalty Law but this ended up in the
archives for lack of time to have it enacted.
Lagman said death penalty is an "anachronistic punishment in this age of
modern and progressive penology, where the underlying philosophy is
rehabilitation, not retribution."
"As long as we have a flawed police and criminal justice system, so long
will criminals taunt lethal injection as a mere anesthesia to numb
societys clamor for vengeance," said Lagman.
Lagman was one of the few legislators who opposed the restoration of
capital punishment during the 8th Congress, during which the House voted
123 to 26 with two abstentions, and the Senate, 17 to 4 with one
abstention to restore the death penalty.
"As it is said in legal parlance: dura lex sed lex-the law is hard but it
is the law. We bow to the collective wisdom or error of the majority. It
is, however, axiomatic that Congress does not pass irrepealable laws.
There is always time to temper the harshness of a law, rectify an error or
review the wisdom of an enactment. That time has come," said Lagman.
(source: ABS CBN News)
