THOUGHTSKOTO

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The House Majority came out with a decision in a caucus to whittle down the controversial bill reimposing the death penalty to cover only 3 offenses.

The three offenses are drug-related crimes, plunder and treason.

House Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas told reporters after the caucus that they have decided to whittle the offenses down to 3 cases for the meantime.

Farinas said that they could add other offenses if the Senate passes the bill, giving justification on the decision to drop other crimes from the coverage of the bill, including rape.

Justifying the inclusion of treason in the list, Fariñas said that it serves as a warning to the public that "giving aid and comfort to the enemy is against the state and it is a heinous crime which will merit the death penalty depending on circumstances."

The majority also issued an ultimatum to critics of the bill to maintain a quorum in plenary sessions or a vote on the measure will be set on February 28.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez previously told reporters that plunder will be dropped from the list but after the caucus Monday, the decision has been to keep it in the bill.

"The media had the notion that it was removed from the bill. We did not remove anything in fact the bill as it stand includes plunder and 20 other offenses," Fariñas said.

The cases included in the death penalty bill originally are the following:

The Death Penalty bill otherwise known as the House Bill 01 has been approved in the House of Representative and is only awaiting for the decision of the plenary to be implemented. What are the provisions of the Death Penalty Bill and what crimes can get you executed? House Bill 01 is consist of 23 pages that contains full texts of the entire bill duly approved by the majority of Congressmen of the 17th Congress of the House of Representatives with vote of 12 in favor, 6 against and 1 who abstained to vote. All the images are from the official website of the House of Representatives. What are the crimes punishable by death according to the Death Penalty Bill? ©2016 THOUGHTSKOTO

Now it's down to only 3 cases out of the original 22: drug related crimes, treason and plunder.

UPDATE: From 3 cases reported, now it's only down to one. Treason and plunder were out of the option retaining only drug related crimes to be punishable by death according to the report by CNN Philippines.

In countries with existing implementation of the death penalty like Saudi Arabia, in particular the crimes punishable by death are the following :

Murder.

Killing Without Intent.

Terrorism Offenses Resulting in Death,

Rape Not Resulting in Death

Robbery Not Resulting in Death

Arson Not Resulting in Death

Burglary Not Resulting in Death

Drug Trafficking Resulting in Death

Drug Trafficking Not Resulting in Death

Drug Possession.

Adultery

Apostasy