vonjobi: wow, congratulations! kelan ang trip? i hope i'll be around when you come. had a good time with diosa last...
Keith Bacongco: Knowing Nograles and his Big Boss...garapalan na lang talaga.
Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.

Latest Message 5 months ago

hopeless_race : Lets not just focus sa mga malversation of funds, sa mga overpricing..ating pagtuunan ng atensyon ang diskarte ng mga politiko na umuutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno."Small time" ang ibang pamamaraan ng pangungurakot kumpara sa pag-utang sa gobyerno ng bilyon na tunay ngang masasabing "pinaka big-time" at wala pang sabit.
hopeless_race : Mukhang tikom ang bibig ng lahat pagdating sa diskarte ng mga politiko sa pagutang ng mga bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno na tinatakbuhan. Itong pamamaraan na ito ang tunay na kumakain ng malaking porsyento ng ating national budget batay na din sa sinasabi ng world bank.
hopeless_race : Pakisilip naman po ang mga utang ni Villar sa BSP, ang mga utang nila RAMON JACINTO, RONNIE ZAMORA, JOE DE VENECIA at madami pang ibang mga pulitiko. Iilan lamang yan sa mga nababanggit sa balita na may mga malalaking utang sa gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Nagmimistulang "small time" lamang ang malversation of funds kumpara sa laki ng kinakamal ng mga umuutang sa gobyerno. At ito ay malinaw na natatakbuhan dahil hindi nga naman pwede makulong ang may-ari ng kumpanya sa pagkaka-utang lamang. Tunay na mga tuso at magagaling sa batas itong mga politiko natin. Masasabi ko na malamang lahat ng mga politiko ganito ang diskarte...wala pang kulong.
hopeless_race : PCIJ pkitingnan naman po ang mga gaya ni Villar na my malaking utang sa Gobyerno pero tinatakbuhan. Magtatayo ng kumpanya at uutang ng bilyon bilyon sa gobyerno ng walang balak bayaran. Tunay ngang walang nakukulong sa utang...ito ang prinsipyo ginagamit ng mga politiko ntin kaya nakakapagtaka kung san napupunta ang daang bilyong pera ng gobyerno.
hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Congress abolishes death penalty

Posted by: Vinia Datinguinoo | June 7, 2006 at 10:26 am
Filed under: Congress Watch, In the News

THE Senate and House of Representatives yesterday voted to abolish the death penalty.

Saying capital punishment “contradicts the importance of human life,” the Senate, voting 16-0 with one abstention, approved Senate Bill No. 2254 prohibiting the imposition of death penalty.

The House of Representatives, also yesterday, passed its own version of the measure; 119 voted to pass House Bill No. 4826, and 20 were against.

The measures will cause the repeal of Republic Act No. 7659 or the Death Penalty Law, as well as RA 8177, which prescribes death by lethal injection for those convicted of heinous crimes.

Instead of death, the penalty is downgraded to reclusion perpetua, or life imprisonment. (A person sentenced with reclusion perpetua becomes eligible for parole after 30 years.)

The two chambers will sit in a bicameral conference to consolidate a final version, which will be passed on to the President for signing. Mrs. Arroyo had publicly said she was in favor of the abolition of capital punishment, and in April commuted the death sentences of some 1,200 prisoners, to life imprisonment.

That presidential move drew mixed reactions, with human-rights groups and Catholic church leaders welcoming the commutation, and anti-crime organizations criticizing what they said was the government’s “insensitivity” to victims of heinous crimes.

Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, for instance, speaking for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines which he heads, at that time said that the “growing aversion of public opinion” against death penalty, “constitutes visible manifestation of a heightened moral consciousness.”

Human-rights advocates have long said that capital punishment discriminates against the poor and powerless, and does not deter crime.

But anti-crime groups, who insist that the abolition of capital punishment would encourage criminals, have quickly denounced the passage of the congressional measures.

“Why weaken the law?” said Dante Jimenez, founding chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption. “If you weaken the law you strengthen the criminals.” Jimenez said the congressional measures were “railroaded,” and that their groups were not invited by Congress to the discussions about the proposal.

View S.B. 2254 here, and H.B. 4826 here.

This a timeline of capital punishment in the Philippines, from the Mamamayang Tutol sa Bitay-Movement for Restorative Justice.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 and is filed under Congress Watch, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 people have left comments

GREAT, I GUESS THE MOTHER F-ing MARCOSES ARE OFF THE HOOK. This is very disappointing. Filipinos, stop being stupid and rise up.

ryebosco wrote on June 7, 2006 - 11:20 am | Visit Link

You expect too much Rye, they could not even nail down any of the Marcoses…neither their cronies, even for tax evasion. A classic case of double standard in the justice system. It is in situation like this that the deadly Sparrow Unit of the NPAs comes handy.

Toro wrote on June 7, 2006 - 11:58 am | Visit Link

It’s high time that we repealed the death penalty. Now the next part is changing the penal system so that the focus is on rehabilitation of convicts to enable them to reenter society and move away from focusing solely on retribution and punishment.

comment lang wrote on June 7, 2006 - 1:54 pm | Visit Link

This culture of death must end! Following the much appreciated decision of the Supreme Court’s denial of Presidential Proclamation 1017, declaring a state of national emergency in February and the so-called “Calibrated Pre-empted Response”, I welcome this another enlightened decision of the Supreme Court.

Nobody has the right to take another man’s right - even the state. Only the Creator has. The right to life is absolute and it is God-given. Abortion, euthanasia, suicide, even killing of fetuses for stem cell research is objectively and intrinsically evil!

By abolishing death penalty in our country we could begin a milestone of affirming the culture of life. This is a good start for change, first of all: a shift of our cultural mentalities which has gone wild to the point of killings, kidnappings, rape, etc.

I do appreciate very much this new and fresh wind of mentality from the Supreme Court. May these good men and women flower and bloom in this country which seem to become a valley of tears, if not a land soaked with blood.

am wrote on June 7, 2006 - 9:48 pm | Visit Link

[...] This culture of death must end! Following the much appreciated decision of the Supreme Court’s denial of Presidential Proclamation 1017, declaring a state of national emergency in February and the so-called “Calibrated Pre-empted Response”, I welcome this another enlightened decision of the Supreme Court. [...]

Emmanuel Mijares » Blog Archive » Hurrah to the “Culture of Life!” wrote on June 7, 2006 - 10:12 pm | Visit Link

[...] The day after, there is victory over death. [...]

buhay kuwago » Let there be death on death wrote on June 10, 2006 - 3:12 am | Visit Link

the death penalty law today
will it be lina law tomorrow?

wait till we see the day –
the ending of landowner’s sorrow.

(shucks! i almost forgot…)

congress will always think 2x to repeal or revise
squatting which the stupid law promotes.

for although it made the informal settlers wise,
trapos always know, it still won them their votes.

(election time a-coming?…drat!)

baycas wrote on June 13, 2006 - 1:36 am | Visit Link

[...] Still, there have been instances when it was not able to do so. MTB-MRJ cites a study by Dawson and Gregory (2004) which documents the case of a 79-year-old man wrongfully sentenced to death (Republic Act No. 7659, recently repealed by Congress, prohibits the meting of the death penalty on those below 18 and above 70 years old). Unfortunately, the man died on death row before the SC could review his case, five years after sentencing. [...]

INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » Supreme Court’s ‘judicial errors’ in death-penalty cases wrote on June 13, 2006 - 4:21 pm | Visit Link

[...] Anti-crime groups like the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption are indignant. They say that the decision of the President and of Congress, which voted to repeal the death penalty law on June 7, was made out of “political convenience.” [...]

INSIDE PCIJ: Stories behind our stories » The politics of convenience: How legislators voted on the death penalty wrote on June 24, 2006 - 1:27 pm | Visit Link

[...] Bayan Muna, Gabriela, and Anakpawis partlist representatives co-authored HB 03421, an act repealing the death penalty, which was later substituted by HB04826. Congress later voted to abolish the death penalty. [...]

INSIDE PCIJ » Seven years of Bayan Muna wrote on October 14, 2006 - 11:29 pm | Visit Link