Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez asked administration officials in the House of Representatives to leave their leadership posts if they cannot abide by the majority coalition’s position to support the revival of the death penalty for heinous crimes.
Those whom Alvarez was referring to should borrow a page from Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III who said he would push for the restoration of capital punishment as the leader of the upper chamber.
Pimentel’s statement was very revealing because he has said that, on a personal level, he is opposed to the death penalty.
To the Senate President’s reckoning, as a supporter and party-mate of President Duterte, his personal position takes the back seat to that of the party’s policies and thrusts after they have been put to a vote.
I have supreme confidence that Pimentel and Alvarez would steer the Senate and the House, respectively, into coming up with a capital punishment law that would really be just and replete with enough safeguards to ensure that only the scumbags and recidivists in society would hang by the noose.
This is no time for weaklings like those who parrot the Roman Catholic Church’s line against the death penalty. After all, it should be “an eye for an eye” when dealing with the dregs of humanity.
ELIZABETH NOVESTERAS, bettynoves1975@gmail.com