Gutoc slams Pacquiao, Go's move to reinstate death penalty: Revive pro-life, not pro-death bills

Former senatorial candidate Samira Gutoc / photo from ABS CBN

Marawi civic leader Samira Gutoc has words for senators who are seeking to reinstate the death penalty punishment in the country, saying they should instead focus on bills that would improve law enforcement and prison reforms.

“Revive pro life, not pro death bills,” said the former Otso Diretso senatorial candidate in a tweet

“Patayin muna ang kagaguhan sa loob ng rehas at enforcement ng walang inosentet batang nakukulong,” she added

Senator-elect Bong Go and Sen. Manny Pacquiao were among the senators who filed bills seeking to impose the death penalty in the Philippines.

Go has reportedly filed the Senate Bill (SB) 207 on Tuesday which seeks the death penalty for drug-related and plunder offenses - as one of his first bills in the Senate.

"Towards this end, the State shall rationalize penal sanctions and impose the befitting penalty reserved by the Constitution for the most heinous crimes, for being grievous, odious, and hateful offenses, which by reason of their inherent or manifest wickedness, viciousness, atrocity, and perversity, are repugnant and outrageous to the common standards and norms of decency and morality in a just, civilized, and ordered society," SB 207 read.

Go’s death penalty proposal would be imposed through lethal injection.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao’s SB 109 is seeking to impose a penalty of life imprisonment to death and a fine ranging from P1 million to P10 million on those crimes related to importing and selling illegal drugs.

Pacquiao’s proposal is focusing on amending Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Drugs Act of 2002.

SB 109 states that those who would protect and coddle any offender of the Comprehensive Drug Act will face the same punishment and a fine ranging from P500,000 to P1 million.

Pacquiao explained that drug trafficking remains "a highly lucrative illicit business with limited risks due to systemic poverty, ineffective criminal justice institutions, outdated drug control laws, poorly controlled maritime borders and public corruption."

Source: Politiko, Philstar