Duterte entrusts fate of death penalty bill to Senate

FILE: President Rodrigo Duterte. (PCOO Photo)

President Rodrigo Duterte is entrusting the fate of the death penalty bill to the Senate, Malacañang said on Tuesday.

“He leaves it to Congress. He has of course identified it as an administration measure and he respects the Senate when it will pass it, if it does so,” Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a press briefing.

Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said that Senator Manny Pacquiao will be heading the discussion on the death penalty this month. According to him, Pacquiao will be appointed by Senator Richard Gordon as the subcommittee chair for the death penalty.

Gordon is the chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights where there are at least eight pending bills to reimpose death penalty. Gordon himself reiterated that he does not approve of such proposal.

Earlier, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez hit the Senate for being a “slow chamber” in passing bills. Alvarez even scored the Senate for its inaction on the measure reimposing the death penalty, which the House of Representatives has approved on March 2017.

While the proposal on the death penalty was overwhelmingly approved at the House of Representatives, Senator Panfilo Lacson last July said that there is still no future for the death penalty bill in the present Senate despite Duterte’s push in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“I am an author of the death penalty bill for almost the same reasons cited by the President. Even with his prodding, however, I don’t see the death penalty being revived under his watch or at least with the present composition of the Senate,” Lacson said.

The measure was not included in the priorities of Senate for the second regular session.