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Philippine lawmaker seeks death penalty for political killings

Political families sponsor armed groups and private armies to annihilate rivals, say supporters of the bill
Philippine lawmaker Ronald dela Rosa filed a bill seeking to reintroduce the death penalty for political killings

Philippine lawmaker Ronald dela Rosa filed a bill seeking to reintroduce the death penalty for political killings. (Photo: Philippine Senate)

Published: May 12, 2023 10:58 AM GMT
Updated: May 12, 2023 11:14 AM GMT

A Filipino lawmaker has filed a bill seeking to reintroduce the death penalty, specifically against politicians and political clans who run armed groups and private armies to annihilate rivals.

Lawmaker Ronald dela Rosa filed the bill in the Senate on May 11, local media reported.

The bill is a modified version of another bill tabled in 2021 during the tenure of former President Rodrigo Duterte to impose the death penalty for drug-related offenses.

Dela Rosa, together with his allies, claimed recent election-related murders would have been deterred if the death penalty was in place.

He said the inclusion of politicians as the potential target of the legislation was a matter of necessity.

“It is but proper that this time, politicians, without exceptions, found guilty of maintaining a private army or engaged in any form of murder should be punished under the death penalty,” dela Rosa told reporters on May 11.

The bill seeks to criminalize the maintenance and use of private armies not only during the elections. It also prohibits the import of high-caliber weapons to be used for election purposes.

Protection such as financing, supplying, or giving aid to private armies is also to be declared illegal.

The proponents said fellow lawmakers should “straighten up” their political activities such as in dealing with electoral defeat.

“Some of us resort to violence when we lose or we want to unseat a threat in the position. Some even maintain private armies and hired killers because they feel protected by law and they have connections in government,” Sorsogon lawmaker Wowo Fortes, a co-sponsor of the bill, told UCA News.

Fortes was referring to the recent murder of Negros Oriental governor Roel Degamo, whose killers claimed they allegedly received instructions from Negros Oriental lawmaker Arnolfo Teves.

On March 4, 2023, Degamo, together with 10 others, was shot at close range while distributing cash aid to beneficiaries at his residence. 

Dela Rosa said lawmakers must submit a report if they were maintaining security forces, together with names of all their security details.

“Right now, we have no record of who among us is maintaining security details with licensed firearms. We need to be transparent by providing the government a list of their men and the licensed firearms they carry,” Dela Rosa added.

Another lawmaker supporter of the bill said fellow lawmakers had maintained private armies for more than their “security reasons.”

“They will say it’s for them, but far from securing their safety some of them had become hitmen, killing their political rival,” Capiz lawmaker Emmanuel Billones told UCA News.

The country’s Department of Interior and Local Government declared 120 election hotspots during the 2022 national elections.

A “hotspot” is a province or municipality where violence or illegal activities are recorded due to the presence of armed groups or private armies who intimidate voters and rival candidates.

Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo, head of the Philippine Bishops’ Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace opposed the bill and warned that it should not be used as a ploy to gain political support from various groups.  

“The test of the bill is when fellow lawmakers approve it to become a law. And of course, the true test is in its enforcement. We have good laws but unenforced which makes them ineffective laws,” Bagaforo told UCA News.

The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 1987 and became the first abolitionist Asian nation. However, the administration of President Fidel Ramos re-introduced it to tackle rising crime rates in 1993.

Former president Gloria Arroyo placed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2006 ahead of an audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. 

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