Contrary to human rights groups’ claims, there is no international treaty barring the Philippines from reimposing the death penalty since the Senate did not ratify the Second Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said Wednesday (Feb. 8).
Sotto said that contrary to the claims made by Philippine representative of Amnesty International (AI) that it was signed by the country in Sept. 20, 2006 and submitted for ratification to the United Nations (UN) in Nov. 20, 2007, proceedings in the Senate did not reflect anything that would prove that it was deliberated upon by senators.
The senator asked Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III to request the chair of the committee on justice and human rights Sen. Richard Gordon to find out who signed the treaty.
“We checked with the Senate protocol, they do not have a copy therefore it was not the Senate. They’re now checking the entire records of the Senate and we’re now asking for certification from the Senate protocol that there is no such instrument of ratification from the Senate,” Sotto said.
Responding to Sotto, justice committee chair Sen. Richard Gordon noted that the matter, when it was presented during the hearing on death penalty last Tuesday, became a supervening event that they have to resolve first before they can continue holding public hearings.
“We have to resolve and then a reference was given to the secretary of the Department of Justice (DOJ) so that he can give us by his research whether in fact there was a ratification validly done or whether in fact we are practically handcuffed from doing anything more about the death penalty,” said Gordon.
“We’re all aware that when a country signs a country and unilaterally backs out of its commitments, it becomes a very bad show for our country. It’s very important that the whole world respects us. Besides in our Constitution, we have to be very careful because it’s very clear that among others it becomes an instrument of national policy,” he added.
Sotto said it would appear that the Second Protocol to the ICCPR was a mere Executive Agreement, if indeed it was not ratified by the Senate and was superceded by the re-imposition of death penalty in 1993.
“Therefore it’s not a law or it’s non-binding,” he explained.
President Rodrigo Duterte has made the passage of a law bringing back the death penalty one of the priorities of his administration.
