Zubiri files bill seeking return of death penalty for certain heinous crime

MANILA, Philippines – Several senators are calling for the reinstatement of the death penalty for certain heinous crimes, including terror acts, as a means to promote peace and order in the country.

Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said he was set to file a bill seeking to revive capital punishment, which was abolished in June 2006.

Congress overwhelmingly voted for the bill to abolish the death penalty with prodding from President Arroyo.

Death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.

Senators Loren Legarda, Panfilo Lacson and Ramon Revilla Jr. are supporting the calls for the reinstatement of capital punishment, especially after the massacre of 10 people during a bank robbery in Cabuyao, Laguna last Friday.

Zubiri said he would like criminals convicted of crimes related to drug trafficking and multiple homicide punished with death.

“The specter of certain death will deter even many hardened criminals. It will be a fear greater than just being caught and locked for life in jail. Many terrorists have managed to escape. Or they could feign reformation of character such as parolees who went back to their old criminal ways. Had they been meted the death penalty, the activities of recidivists would have stopped with finality,”  Zubiri said.

Aside from the violent death met by employees of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. in Cabuyao, the indiscriminate killing of two families of farmers in Calamba, Laguna and the murder of a Viva hot babe model in Olongapo City and her companions last month were cited by Zubiri as reasons why he made the proposal.

He had earlier voted against the abolition of the death penalty when the 13th Congress voted to repeal Republic Act 9346.

“The police and military will need an iron hand represented by the death penalty to cope with rising criminality. It does not mean that the police and military are letting their guard down. Neither would the reinstatement of the death penalty mean there will be a neglect of the rights of the accused,” he said.

“With my bill, we are not opening the doors to capital punishment on several crimes as it was in the past but just limiting it to two heinous crimes – drug trafficking and multiple murder. Homicide cases and massacres have been on the rise these previous months,” Zubiri said.

Legarda said it might be difficult to revive the death penalty that was scrapped only recently. However, she stressed it had been her stand since she first became senator that the death penalty must be imposed on certain crimes, particularly incestuous rape.

“How can you explain if it’s the father who rapes his own child? And also drug trafficking and kidnapping-for-ransom, massacre,” she argued.

“I’m just being consistent even if I know the Church is against it. I feel strongly about it because as a journalist, I covered a lot of massacres, a lot of heinous crimes,” Legarda said. – With Mike Frialde, Jose Rodel Clapano