Phillipine Senate Votes to Abolish Death Penalty

[malik]

Philippine Senate and House Vote Overwhelmingly to Abolish Death Penalty

On June 6, the Philippine Senate voted with no negative votes to abolish the death penalty. Even senators who supported the death penalty voted for abolition. Life without parole sentences or 40 years in prison will be substituted for execution, depending on the offence. President Arroyo is strongly in favor of the effort to end the death penalty. Under the bill, all death sentences will be commuted to life sentences.

One of the senators who was hesitant about ending capital punishment, Sen. Richard Gordon, nevertheless said,

"It is so easy to kill a person to bring him to justice, but the lifetime suffering of a nation when it finds out that it has made a mistake is indelible."

Some of Gordon's family members had been murdered earlier.

On the same day, the Philippine House of Representatives voted 119-20 for a similar bill outlawing capital punishment. The two bodies are expected to reconcile differences in their bills and President Arroyo is expected to sign the final version of the legislation.
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The death penalty had been re-established in the Philippines in 1993. There have been 7 executions since then. Lethal injection was the method of execution. There are currently 1,022 inmates on death row.

(Daily Tribune and InQ7.net, June 7, 2006)

[roxy]

Philippine President Abolishes Death Penalty, Arroyo Signs Law, Reiterates Commitment to Fighing Crime

June 25, 2006

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed a law abolishing the death penalty on Saturday, giving final approval to a measure that divided many Filipinos.

Arroyo, who like most of her people is Roman Catholic, sought to assure the nation that her opposition to capital punishment had not undermined her commitment to fighting crime.

We will never be intimidated by these treacherous acts, and we shall fight terror as seriously as we embrace peace, she said, referring to a car bomb that killed six people Friday in an area where Muslim separatists are active. Story continues below advertisement

More than 1,200 death-row convicts including at least 11 al-Qaida-linked militants ? will benefit from the ban.

The bill cleared the Philippine legislature earlier this month despite protests from anti-crime activists who believe Arroyo rushed its approval to please the pope. The president leaves Sunday on a trip to the Vatican where she is scheduled to meet with Benedict XVI.

Papal Nuncio Archbishop Fernando Filoni, the Vatican envoy to Manila, congratulated Arroyo and legislators who supported the measure.

Arroyo signed the law shortly after returning to the presidential Palace from a hospital where she was taken late Thursday.

We shall continue to devote the increasing weight of our resources to the prevention and control of serious crimes, rather than take the lives of those who commit them, she said.

The death penalty had been abolished in the Philippines in 1987 but was restored in late 1993 for heinous crimes such as murder, child rape and kidnapping. Seven people have been executed since then.