QUEZON City, Philippines (Eagle News) — Buhay Party-List Representative Lito Atienza asked the Senate to forget about the death penalty bill as the law cannot be applied to those charged under the Duterte administration.
According to Atienza’s estimation, if the death penalty bill is passed, the execution of the first criminal to be sentenced with death will be around 2022, the end of President Duterte’s term.
“Even assuming the Senate caves in, and approves its version of the bill quickly, we seriously doubt there would be any judicial executions at all while President Duterte is in office,” Rep. Atienza said.
Atienza, who had served as Manila mayor for three terms, is presently the House senior deputy minority leader and an outspoken against the critic of the death penalty.
“Even if we have a new capital punishment law by June, based on our projections, the initial death row inmates with final judgments won’t come in until around mid-2022, or by the end of the President’s term, without counting potential delays due to adverse lawsuits,” Atienza explained.
“Considering that the President won’t get his wish anyway, the Senate should just abandon the bill (reimposing death penalty). The best criminologists around the world have long established that the death penalty does not serve any purpose that is not already being served by prolonged imprisonment,” he said.
Atienza said that once the bill reintroducing the death penalty is finally enacted, the Department of Justice would also need at least another six months to draw up a new Manual of Execution.
“And this manual will surely be challenged before the Supreme Court, without prejudice to other lawsuits (against capital punishment),” he said.
The former Manila mayor also noted that the seven convicts put to death via lethal injection during the term of former President Joseph Estrada, were all executed some five years after the commission of their crimes.
Eagle News Service
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