Just as the country started its celebration of Lent, the House of Representatives on Ash Wednesday approved on second reading the bill seeking to restore the death penalty.
This after the House majority on Wednesday’s session approved by voice voting House Bill 4727 which seeks to impose the capital punishment on drug-related offenses.
The ayes won over the nays with the latter led by the anti-death penalty lawmakers Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza.
The second reading approval of the bill puts the restoration of the death penalty closer to its third and final reading, when the bill would just be voted upon by lawmakers without the need of amendments.
The House during its plenary session voted to approve the bill after it closed the period of amendments, turning a deaf ear to pleas by the opposition to reopen the amendments on the bill.
At the start of the session, presiding Speaker Batangas Rep. Raneo Abu, acting majority floor leader Pampanga Rep. Juan Pablo Bondoc and the bill’s sponsor Oriental Mindor Rep. Reynaldo Umali opened the floor for individual amendments.
In the end, it was a numbers game, and the House plenary by viva voce shot down all the proposed individual amendments.
Umali later on asked for an omnibus rejection of all the similar amendments pitched by Lagman, who proposed to delete the word “death” in the bill and impose the maximum penalty of reclusion temporal to reclusion perpetua instead.
Umali said Lagman’s amendment defeats the purpose of a death penalty bill.
When Lagman asked the body to vote on his motion for nominal voting, the presiding Speaker Abu called for the body to stand up if they support Lagman’s motion.
Only 23 lawmakers stood up, and Lagman’s motion was lost, because it needed one-fifth of the body for any motion for nominal voting to be approved.
When Lagman proposed a second roll call to determine if the one-fifth vote was met, majority leader Ilocos Norte Rep. Rudy Farinas seconded Lagman’s motion on the condition he would move to terminate the period of amendments afterward.
The second roll call showed that 227 members responded to the call. With 46 of 227 or one-fifth needed for nominal voting, Lagman’s motion was lost.
The House eventually voted to terminate the period of amendments by voice voting, and later passed the bill on second reading.
The death penalty bill has been amended to limit it to drug-related offenses, in a bid to support the administration’s bloody narcotics crackdown that has claimed over 7,000 lives.
The bill as it is was amended with plunder, rape and treason removed from the death sentence.
The bill will not impose the mandatory death sentence, giving the judge the leeway whether to impose life sentence or the maximum penalty of death on convicts.
The bill will punish with death or life imprisonment the following drug-related offenses: importation of dangerous drugs; sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of dangerous drugs; maintenance of a den, dive or resort; manufacture of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals; misappropriation, misapplication or failure to account for confiscated, seized or surrendered dangerous drugs; planting of evidence.
Possession of drugs will only be penalized with the maximum offense of life imprisonment.
The bill stated that the death penalty should not be imposed on children below 18 years old or senior citizens over 70 years of age at the time of the commission of the crime.
The penalty to be imposed on convicts are hanging, firing squad and lethal injection. /INQUIRER.NET