Death Penalty Bill Unconstitutional

By Herbert Vego

ONE hot news today is a bill seeking to impose the death penalty by firing squad for public officials convicted of corruption, malversation of public funds, and plunder.

Its author, Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Khymer Adan Olaso, explains in the explanatory note of House Bill (SB) 11211, that “current measures are insufficient to deter public officials from engaging in corrupt practices.”

Most netizens frown upon the bill as impassable.  A big joke is that, if the bill were passed and implemented, no politician alive today might survive.

Anyway, why single out politicians for death punishment when the law prohibiting its re-imposition applies to all Filipinos? Pray tell me, who among our “representathieves” would bash his own head?

The 1987 Constitution, under Section 19, Article III, Section 19 prohibits the death penalty, “unless, for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, the Congress hereafter provides for it.”

I remember that former President Rodrigo Duterte, during his 5th State of the Nation Address on July 27, 2020, asked Congress to reinstate the death penalty.

In response, sycophant congressmen immediately drafted 12 death penalty bills. Their common ground is that it would deter drug lords from pushing their luck.

No less than the then Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto vowed to “resurrect” the death penalty by lethal injection.

We feared that the majority in the House and the Senate would demonstrate their “unity behind the President” by heeding his request. Fortunately, we feared wrongly.

Remember when, in 1997 during the time of President Fidel Ramos, Sotto himself was on the front page for “protecting” a suspected drug lord, Alfredo Tiongco, who was alleged to have financed the senator’s 1992 campaign? He denied the charge but admitted being a friend of Tiongco.

At that time, death was the maximum penalty. But not surprisingly, the case against the wealthy Tiongco never reached the court of law.

Before the Tiongco fiasco, Sotto was being floated as a possible presidential candidate in 1998. The drug scandal scuttled his plan.

If the death penalty were not abolished in 2006 during the Gloria Arroyo presidency, Sotto’s friend Erap — yes, ex-President Joseph Estrada — might have said “goodbye world” in the wake of his plunder conviction.

But while no death-penalty bill has ripened into law since then, you and I know that the Duterte administration had unilaterally imposed “extrajudicial killings” of alleged drug lords, except known friends of the regime.

Since murder is worse than any form of graft and corruption, how could Olaso’s anti-graft bill work in the present government that refuses to impeach impeachable officials in government today?

The universal truth is that today’s big criminals are so “well connected and protected” that they evade the fate of their underlings who knowingly risk life and limb to make both ends meet.

Dangling the word “punishment” does not scare them. They know that their “likelihood” of being punished is an illusion.

-oOo-

MORE POWER, LOWER RATES

FOLLOWING the announcement of the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the constitutionality of the expansion of MORE Power’s distribution coverage from Iloilo City to Passi City and 15 towns of Iloilo province, the distribution utility has implemented lower rates for household users. It’s now ₱10.9567 per kWh, reflecting a decrease of ₱0.4603 per kWh compared to December 2024.

This good news is expected to encourage more households to shift to MORE Power, although they may still retain patronage with Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO). As the saying goes, “No competition, no progress.”

MORE Power has already set up electric poles in the municipality of Pavia. Applications for connection, I understand, are now available.

Meanwhile, to ensure a safe and unobstructed view of the upcoming Dinagyang Festival 2025 celebrations at the Freedom Grandstand, MORE Power and the Iloilo City Government have been busy removing overhead wires near the event venues.