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Press Release

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman called on Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and the leadership of the House supermajority to allow a conscience vote on the proposed reimposition of the death penalty.

Lagman said that Speaker Alvarez must liberate members of the majority coalition to advocate differing views and assure free debate on the revival of capital punishment.

Lagman’s call is on the wake of the approval by the Sub-Committee on Judicial Reforms of the Committee on Justice of the substitute bill adhering to the proposal of H.B. No. 001 imposing the death penalty on at least 21 crimes considered “heinous”.

The precipitate approval, which was assured by the preponderant presence of ex-officio members who outnumbered the regular members, was vitiated by non-compliance with the prior 3-calendar day notice rule to the members informing them of the scheduled meeting, abrupt termination of the testimonies of resource persons and absence of a requisite committee report, Lagman added.

The death penalty is proposed to be imposed on the following crimes:

Treason; qualified piracy; qualified bribery; parricide; murder; infanticide; rape; kidnapping and serious illegal detention; robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons; destructive arson; plunder; carnapping;

Drug-related crimes like the importation of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals; sale, trading, administration, dispensation, delivery, distribution and transportation of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals; maintenance of a drug den, dive or resort; manufacture of dangerous drugs and/or controlled precursors and essential chemicals;

Possession of dangerous drugs; cultivation or culture of plants classified as dangerous drugs or are sources thereof; unlawful prescription of dangerous drugs; misappropriation, misapplication or failure to account for confiscated, seized and/or surrendered dangerous drugs, plant sources of dangerous drugs, controlled precursors and essential chemicals, instruments/paraphernalia and/or laboratory equipment including the proceeds or properties obtained from the unlawful act committed; and planting of evidence.

Lagman also said that the proponents of the consolidated substitute bill failed to comply with the constitutional requirement of showing compelling reasons for the reimposition of the death penalty.

 

EDCEL C. LAGMAN

In the News

"The railroading has started, it hopes to reach the terminal before the Christmas break … In other words, the message of the House leadership is – 'have a deadly Christmas'," Albay Representative Edcel Lagman said at a news conference.

The restoration of the death penalty is one of the measures President Rodrigo Duterte wants Congress to prioritize to help his administration in its fight against illegal drugs and crime.

"It’s so disturbing that the culture of death is upon us -- the unabated extra judicial killings, now the railroading of bills to re-impose death penalty, the continuing threat of the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and the (threat of the) declaration of martial law -- all of these will be related to a culture of violence and to the violation of basic human rights," Lagman said.

Read more: http://interaksyon.com/

Press Statements

View "Motion" in PDF

Rep. Edcel C. Lagman filed Monday morning the motion for reconsideration on behalf of the desaparecidos before the Supreme Court to underscore that the petitioners have up to November 28, 2016 within which to seek the reversal of the decision allowing the “mortal remains” of the late dictator to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB), and meanwhile the challenged decision is not final and executory.

In a preliminary statement prefacing the reconsideration, Lagman stressed the following:

"It is not hard to comprehend that the interment of Marcos in the Cemetery of Heroes is inextricably intertwined with the late dictator’s imposition of martial law which spawned inordinate oppression, corruption and plunder for 14 ignominious years and even beyond.

"It is not difficult to understand that allowing his burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is a veritable honor accorded to a disgraced President and Commander-in-Chief who was deposed by the sovereign people for having committed grievous sins against the Filipino people as acknowledged by no less than the Honorable Supreme Court in a number of landmark decisions and validated by foreign judicial tribunals.

"His burial in the memorial of good men impedes on the continuing quest for illusive justice for the victims of martial law, perpetuates the impunity of his transgressions and mocks the unfinished task of recovering his hoard of ill-gotten wealth.

"These are the very reasons why the Marcos burial in LNMB transcends politics. These are the very reasons why President Duterte’s policy on burying Marcos in the LNMB is not a political question which is beyond the judicial scalpel to excise.

"These are the very reasons why such a policy is flawed and its implementation is tainted with gross abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction because it violates the Constitution, relevant statues and pertinent decisions of the Honorable Supreme Court, all of which are justiciable.

"It is not remote to realize that the Marcos burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani is a gross distortion, a malevolent revision and a wanton derogation of Philippine history"

Press Statements

The menace in illegal drugs is police protection.

This is central to the testimony of Kerwin Espinosa, a self-confessed “drug lord”.

A teardrop alone from PNP Director General Ronald Dela Rosa cannot inundate the criminal conspiracy of some of his men.

If the conspiring police officials and personnel are exorcised and prosecuted with alacrity, then the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug dealers and users will end.

Suspects are eliminated by the police to silence them from squealing on police protectors and to make the deadly anti-drug campaign a façade to conceal their culpability.

Command responsibility to take the necessary action is on President Duterte and Dela Rosa.

The Duterte administration and the leadership of the Philippine National Police can start solving the illegal drug problem not by the continuing summary execution of suspects, but by putting behind bars the police protectors of those involved in the narcotics trade.

 

EDCEL C. LAGMAN

Press Statements

AFP Regulations G 161-375 dated September 11, 2002 issued by the Department of National Defense, which was the principal basis of the Supreme Court’s majority decision that the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos is entitled to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani as a former President and soldier, is not even legally effective.

The Office of the National Administrative Registrar (ONAR) of the University of the Philippines Law Complex certified on November 21, 2016 that the said AFP Regulations G 161-375 is not registered or filed with the ONAR.

The Administrative Code of 1987 under Book VII, Chapter 2, provides:

“SECTION 3. Filing. – (1) Every agency shall file with the University of the Philippines Law Center three (3) certified true copies of every rule adopted by it. x x x

“SECTION 4. Effectivity. – In addition to other rule-making requirements provided by law not inconsistent with this Book, each rule shall become effective fifteen (15) days from the date of filing as above provided unless a different date is fixed by law, x x x.”

Prevailing jurisprudence underscores the absence of efficacy of administrative rules not registered with the ONAR.

Since said AFP Regulation governing burials at the Libingan ng mga Bayani is not filed with the ONAR, no rights, privileges and obligations have accrued from said issuance or regulations.

Consequently, there is no law or issuance which qualifies Marcos to be interred in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN