The Catholic Church in the Philippines has attacked the country’s lower house lawmakers who voted overwhelming in favour of bringing back capital punishment for serious drug crimes today (7 March).
The president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) criticised the Lower House for giving its "consent for the State to kill," in a statement released on Tuesday.
Voting 216 to 54 with one abstention, lawmakers passed the third and final reading the bill to bring back the death penalty, but in a watered-down draft that excludes crimes like rape, kidnap-for-ransom and plunder. The bill, which permits execution by hanging, firing squad and lethal injection, must now go to the Senate.
CBCP President Archbishop Socrates Villegas said Filipino bishops are currently “overcome with grief” but insisted that they are not defeated and they will not be silenced.
"In the midst of Lent we prepare to celebrate the triumph of Life over Death, and while we grieve that the Lower House has voted for death, our faith assures us that life will triumph," the prelate said.
The archbishop called on the Catholic faithful to continue opposing capital punishment.
"They may have won but it does not mean that they are right," Villegas said.
A return of the death penalty, over a decade after it was abolished under pressure from the church, has been a top priority for Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, who swept to power on promises of a merciless war on drugs and crime.
On 18 February, thousands of Catholics joined a march with other church leaders in Manila in one of the largest shows of opposition against President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly crackdown against illegal drugs and attempts to revive the death penalty.
As many as 50,000 people are reported to have taken part in the “Walk for Life” march.
"We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing those who kill. It also increases the number of killers," the CBCP said in a statement released to coincide with the march.
The gathering came just days after the church launched its strongest worded attack against Duterte's war on drugs, branding it a “reign of terror in many places of the poor”, in a pastoral letter read out in all of the country’s catholic churches during February.
More than 7,600 people have been killed since Duterte launched his anti-drugs campaign last July. More than 2,500 died in shootouts during raids and sting operations, according to the police.
PICTURE: A congressman gestures a thumbs up as he votes for the passing of the death penalty bill during its 3rd and final reading inside the Philippine House of Representatives in Quezon City, the Philippines, March 7, 2017.
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