Members of the Philippine Congress attends reading of the death penalty bill on March 7. (Photo: Xinhua) Hanoi (VNA) – Philippine lower house lawmakers on March 7 approved the re-imposition of capital punishment for eight drug-related crimes.
Voting 216 to 54 with one abstention, members of the House of Representatives passed the bill in the final reading. The first draft prescribed death penalty or life imprisonment for 21 offences. However, the figure was reduced to eight in the second reading.
The bill will be submitted to the Senate and will become law when President Rodrigo Duterte signs it.
The Philippines abolished the death penalty in the 1987 Constitution and became the first Asian country to do so. The death penalty was restored in 1993 under President Fidel Ramos, before being scrapped again in 2006 by President Gloria Arroyo.
President Duterte expressed his wish to restore the penalty since he took office in June 2016, claiming it is an effective deterrent against crime.-VNA
