Aguirre: Treaty can't prevail over Constitution in reimposition of death penalty

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Tuesday allayed concerns that the planned reimposition of death penalty would violate the Philippines' international legal obligations.

Several groups, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, had appealed to the Philippine Congress to keep the law abolishing the death penalty, which President Rodrigo Duterte wanted reversed as he seeks to deter heinous crimes such as drug trafficking.

The UN said the Philippines ratified in 2007 the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which states that “no one within the jurisdiction of a State Party to the present Protocol shall be executed" and "each State Party shall take all necessary measures to abolish the death penalty within its jurisdiction.”

Aguirre, however, said a treaty could never be higher than the Constitution, which allows Congress under Article III, Sections 1 and 19 to impose capital punishment.

"Alam mo 'yung treaty, subservient 'yan or mas mababa 'yan sa constitutional provision. Sa constitutional provision natin pinapayagan tayo na i-reimpose ang death penalty. Hindi maaaring mag-prevail ang treaty sa ating Constitution," he told reporters.

Aguirre also shrugged off the claim of Senator Risa Hontiveros that capital punishment has a disproportionate impact on the poor and that there's "little guarantee" that innocent people would not be sentenced to death.

"Kanyang perception 'yun. Hindi naman totoo 'yun," Aguirre said.

Duterte holds majority support in the Senate and House of Representatives, where the bill co-authored by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez is pending in plenary.

Among the offenses the bill said should merit death penalty include treason, murder, rape, kidnapping, plunder, and importation, sale and distribution of illegal drugs.

Former President Fidel Ramos reimposed the death penalty in 1993 only to be abolished in 2006 — a year before the Philippines' ratification of the ICCPR's Second Optional Protocol — by then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. —KBK, GMA News