{"id":145666,"date":"2018-01-12T01:55:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-12T06:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=145666"},"modified":"2018-01-12T01:55:03","modified_gmt":"2018-01-12T06:55:03","slug":"congress-has-authority-to-re-impose-death-penalty-panelo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/01\/12\/congress-has-authority-to-re-impose-death-penalty-panelo\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress has authority to re-impose death penalty: Panelo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo (Photo: RODRIGUEZ\/PPD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA\u00a0— Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Thursday said Congress had the authority to re-impose the death penalty if there were compelling reasons involving heinous crimes.<\/p>\n

Panelo made this comment as the Senate announced its resumption of hearings on the revival of the death penalty within this month.<\/p>\n

He said that while Section 19 of Article III of the 1987 Constitution prohibited the imposition of the death penalty, the same provision authorized the Congress to pass a law which re-imposed death penalty \u201cfor compelling reason involving heinous crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words, the Congress has the authority to re-impose the death penalty, provided that, it finds compelling reasons involving heinous crimes therefor,\u201d Panelo said in a press statement.<\/p>\n

Contrary to critics\u2019 claims, Panelo explained that re-imposition of the penalty was not inconsistent with the Philippines\u2019 treaty obligations including under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe said instrument allows the imposition of the death penalty and only limits its application to the most serious crimes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also explained that treaties could not be in conflict with the country\u2019s Constitution which \u201chas higher authority over any legal instrument whether it be passed or ratified by the Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panelo said while the second optional protocol of the ICCPR mandated the abolition of death penalty, the ICCPR still could not, however, prevail over Congress\u2019 authority to re-impose capital punishment.<\/p>\n

\u201cTreaties ratified and incorporated and made part of the law of the land are only given equal standing with, and are not superior to our laws,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHence, like any other law, a treaty may be repealed by a later act of Congress if it deems that such is warranted under the present circumstances or is violative of our Constitution,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Thursday said Congress had the authority to re-impose the death penalty if …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":87474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[41254,1983,6208],"class_list":["post-145666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-chief-presidential-legal-counsel-salvador-panelo","tag-congress","tag-death-penalty","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}