{"id":215512,"date":"2019-05-22T23:42:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T03:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=215512"},"modified":"2019-05-22T23:42:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T03:42:04","slug":"death-penalty-health-bills-among-priorities-of-senators-elect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/22\/death-penalty-health-bills-among-priorities-of-senators-elect\/","title":{"rendered":"Death penalty, health bills among priorities of senators-elect"},"content":{"rendered":"
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FILE: PROCLAMATION OF SENATORS. The National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) proclaims the 12 winning senators at the PICC Tent Forum in Pasay City on Wednesday (May 22, 2019). Leading the senators-elect with the highest number of votes are reelectionist Senators Cynthia Villar (in yellow dress) and Grace Poe-Llamanzares (in white dress) followed by former Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence \u201cBong\u201d Go (3rd place), come-backing senator Pilar Juliana \u201cPia\u201d Cayetano (4th), former Philippine National Police chief Ronald \u201cBato\u201d dela Rosa (5th), reelectionist Juan Edgardo \u201cSonny\u201d Angara (6th); comebacking senator Manuel \u201cLito\u201d Lapid (7th); former Ilocos Norte governor Maria Imelda Josefa \u201cImee\u201d Marcos (8th); former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Francis Tolentino (9th); reelectionist Aquilino Martin \u201cKoko\u201d Pimentel III (10th); former senator Ramon \u201cBong\u201d Revilla, Jr. (11th); and reelectionist Maria Lourdes \u201cNancy\u201d Binay (12th). (PNA photo by Jess M. Escaros Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>— The newly elected senators on Wednesday have floated the reimposition of the death penalty and some health-related legislation among their priority agenda in the Senate after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) proclaimed the 2019 midterm elections’ winners in Pasay City.<\/p>\n

While saying he is “pro-life”, newly proclaimed lawmaker Ramon “Bong” Revilla said he considers supporting the bill to reinstate capital punishment.<\/p>\n

“Pag-aralan nating mabuti ‘yan. Ako<\/em>, ever since naman pro-life,\u00a0pero siyempre i-consider din natin kung ano ‘yong epekto ng ginagawa nitong mga tao, minsan abusado talaga<\/em>\u00a0(I will study it carefully. Ever since I am a pro-life but of course, I have to consider also the behavior of the people, some are really abusive),” he said in an interview.<\/p>\n

The same goes for neophyte Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, the country’s former top cop, who said he would push for the reimposition of the death penalty for drug-related crimes.<\/p>\n

Senate President Vicente \u201cTito\u201d Sotto III had earlier floated the possibility of the restoration of capital punishment for high-level drug trafficking entering the next Senate, which is among the Duterte administration’s pet bills.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Senator-elect Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, garnering the third highest numbers of votes at 20.6 million, said he would focus on health and education-related bills.<\/p>\n

“I want to improve health services throughout the country. I will focus on health and education and I will continue the campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte against corruption in the government, criminality, and illegal drugs,” he told reporters.<\/p>\n

Senator Francis Tolentino, on the other hand, said he will push for more disaster-related legislations and the amendment of the local government code.<\/p>\n

‘Rubber stamp tag rejected’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dela Rosa, Go, Revilla and re-elected Senators Sonny Angara and Grace Poe as well as new Senator Imee Marcos, who ranked eighth in the 2019 senatorial elections, all assured of an independent Senate.<\/p>\n

“Rubber stamp? Definitely no. I am cooperative and supportive, but not under the dictates of Malaca\u00f1ang,” dela Rosa said.<\/p>\n

Revilla echoed similar sentiments saying he will make sure the upper chamber would stay independent.<\/p>\n

Go, for his part, said he will maintain independence even as he supports the legislative agenda of the executive department.<\/p>\n

“Of course,\u00a0magiging independent po ako subalit susuportahan ko po ang\u00a0<\/em>legislative agenda\u00a0ni Pangulong Duterte dahil alam ko po na ginagawa lang niya ang tama<\/em>\u00a0(I will be an independent but will support the legislative agenda of President Duterte because I know he is just doing the right thing),” he said.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Angara said he believes “most of the senators are independent-minded.”<\/p>\n

“We want to help the President succeed, we want to help the people also, they expect the independence of senators,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA— The newly elected senators on Wednesday have floated the reimposition of the death penalty and some health-related legislation among …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":215513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-215512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-joyce-ann-l-rocamora","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215512","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=215512"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215514,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215512\/revisions\/215514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}