PHL Charter prevails over treaty obligations on death penalty –Panelo

The 1987 Constitution will prevail over the Philippines’ treaty obligations on the issue of the reimposition of the death penalty, President Rodrigo Duterte’s chief legal counsel said on Thursday.

Secretary Salvador Panelo in a statement said that the 1987 Constitution allows Congress to revive the death penalty “for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes.”

This despite a mandate to abolish capital punishment under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which the Philippines ratified.

Treaties ratified are not superior to the country’s laws, Panelo argued. He added that the treaties cannot be in conflict with the Constitution.

“The same, however, cannot prevail over the authority of Congress under the Constitution to re-impose the death penalty if it determines that there are compelling reasons to penalize or prevent the commission of grievous, odious and hateful offenses that equate to heinous crimes,” he said in a statement.

“Like any other law, a treaty may be repealed by a later act of Congress if it deems that such is warranted under the present circumstances or is violative of our Constitution,” he added.

CPLC Sec Panelo on criticisms that re-imposing death penalty will violate PHL's treaty obligations pic.twitter.com/GXTEeU4DkG

— Trisha Macas (@trishamacas) January 11, 2018

In 2016, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said that the Philippines "would violate its obligations under international human rights law if it reintroduced the death penalty."

The Senate is expected to discuss the revival of the death penalty this month.  The House of Representatives in March last year approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 4727 that seeks to revive capital punishment on seven drug-related offenses. — MDM, GMA News