We express grave concern on the votes in favor of House Bill No. 7814, which passed on third reading yesterday, 2 March 2021, at the House of Representatives. We wish to highlight that our system of laws adheres to the rule of law and its basic tenets provide that a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. The presumptions of guilt in the bill goes against this right guaranteed for the accused under the Bill of Rights of our 1987 Philippine Constitution. We note that the bill provides for presumptions of guilt for people accused of being traffickers, financiers, protectors, coddlers and/or being involved in illegal drugs which we strongly believe to be patently unconstitutional. It also attempts to reintroduce the death penalty, which we have committed to tirelessly assail. We reiterate that the death penalty is not an effective deterrent and if passed, this is considered a serious breach of our international obligations, particularly under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and its Second Optional Protocol aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

We most respectfully urge our legislators to pursue bills that would address recovery from the pandemic. We are still in the middle of a pandemic – where thousands of lives have been lost and many lives are still at peril. While we await for the arrival of vaccines in the country, we appeal to our legislators to pursue measures that would allow us to recover not only from COVID-19 but also from the negative effects of the responses to quell it. The reintroduction of the death penalty will create more problems particularly in terms of livelihood that may be lost given the dire economic situation especially of the disadvantaged, marginalized, and vulnerable sectors of society. It may likely lead to the suspension or withdrawal of privileges under the Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) Program with the European Union. We emphasize that many industries, most especially the agriculture sector, have benefitted tremendously under this trade agreement.

We call on our legislators to refer to the different evidence-based studies on the death penalty, which show how ineffective it is in deterring crimes and look to other alternatives that have been proven to be effective in curbing crime. We stand ready to work with government in crafting human rights- and evidence-based policies to comply with the standards and principles of the rule of law particularly on the rights of the accused, and to affirm the right to life.