Introduction to Death Penalty

The Philippines' 1987 Constitution prohibits the use of the death penalty, stating that 'the death penalty
shall not be imposed unless the Congress hereafter provides for it for compelling reasons involving
heinous crimes. Any existing death penalty shall be reduced to reclusion perpetua'.

Under Republic Act (RA) 7659, which was passed by Congress in December 1993, President Ramos'
administration reinstated the death penalty. The law defined 46 crimes as punishable by death. Several
new RAs and amendments to existing ones (8177, 8353, and 9165) have been passed over the years,
resulting in 52 capital offenses, 30 of which are death-mandatory and 22 of which are death-eligible.

President Estrada had seven death-row convicts executed by lethal injection (RA 8177) in 1999,
ostensibly to reduce rising criminality. Following intense lobbying by the Catholic Church and human
rights organizations, President Estrada issued a temporary moratorium in March 2000 to commemorate
the Christian'Jubilee Year.

In response to a reported increase in drug trafficking and kidnapping, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
announced the lifting of the de facto moratorium on executions in December 2003. When the Supreme
Court vacated a lower court's decision to execute two death-row inmates based on testimony that
exonerated them of their crimes, executions were set to resume in January 2004.

In April 2006, President Arroyo commuted the sentences of 1,230 death row and ultimately signed RA
9346 in June 2006 which abolished the use of capital punishment[3]. Congress had overwhelmingly
supported the abolishment of the practice in their vote for the RA earlier that month replacing the death
penalty with life imprisonment and reclusion perpetua.

RA 9346 states, inter alia, ‘The imposition of the penalty of death is hereby prohibited. Accordingly,
Republic Act No. Eight Thousand One Hundred Seventy-Seven (R.A. No. 8177), otherwise known as the
Act Designating Death by Lethal Injection is hereby repealed, Republic Act No. Seven Thousand Six
Hundred Fifty-Nine (R.A. No. 7659), otherwise known as the Death Penalty Law, and all other laws,
executive orders and decrees, insofar as they impose the death penalty are hereby repealed or
amended accordingly.