QuestionsQuestions (Republic Act No. 7659)
It cites Article III, Section 19(1) of the 1987 Constitution, which states that death penalty shall not be imposed unless, for compelling reasons involving heinous crimes, Congress provides for it.
To foster obedience to authority and adopt measures to maintain peace and order, protect life, liberty, and property, and promote the general welfare essential for democracy in a just and humane society.
It provides that Filipino citizens guilty of treason are punished by reclusion perpetua to death, with a fine not exceeding P100,000; aliens residing in the Philippines are punished by reclusion temporal to death, also with a fine not exceeding P100,000.
No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of at least two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession of the accused in open court.
Qualified piracy includes cases under Article 122 with circumstances such as boarding or firing upon the vessel, abandoning victims without means of saving themselves, or the crime being accompanied by murder, homicide, physical injuries, or rape; the penalty is reclusion perpetua to death.
It adds Article 211-A (Qualified Bribery). If a public officer entrusted with law enforcement refrains from arresting or prosecuting an offender punishable by reclusion perpetua and/or death in consideration of any gift/promise, he suffers the penalty for the offense not prosecuted; if the officer asks or demands the gift/present, the penalty is death.
It restores the death penalty for parricide, so parricide is punished by reclusion perpetua to death.
They include: treachery; taking advantage of superior strength; with the aid of armed men; employing means to weaken defense or means/persons to ensure impunity; in consideration of price/reward/promise; by means involving great waste and ruin (including certain methods like fire/poison/explosion/shipwreck/derailment/assault on railroads, etc., and motor vehicles and similar means); on occasion of enumerated calamities; with evident premeditation; with cruelty (deliberately and inhumanly augmenting suffering or outraging/scoffing at the person or corpse).
It is death when the kidnapping/detention is for the purpose of extorting ransom from the victim or any other person (even if other circumstances are absent), and the maximum penalty is also imposed where the victim is killed or dies as a consequence of detention, or is raped, or is subject to torture or dehumanizing acts.
When, by reason or on occasion of the robbery, homicide is committed, or when the robbery is accompanied by rape or intentional mutilation or arson.
Examples include: burning buildings/edifices consequent to one single act of burning or simultaneous burnings, and burning public or private buildings where people gather (e.g., hotels/motels/transient dwellings) regardless of actual habitation; also burning arsenals, shipyards, storehouses or military powder/fireworks factories/ordnance/archives/general museum of the Government; and if death results as a consequence, mandatory death is imposed.
Examples include: rape committed with the use of a deadly weapon or by two or more persons; when a homicide is committed on the occasion of rape; rape committed with attendant circumstances such as victim under 18 with the offender as a parent/ascendant/step-parent/guardian/relative within third civil degree or common-law spouse of the parent; rape in full view of husband/parents/children/relatives within third degree; victim is a religious or child below seven; offender knows he has AIDS; rape by members of Armed Forces/PNP/law enforcement; rape with permanent physical mutilation.
It adds Section 20-A stating that any person charged under provisions of the Act where the imposable penalty is reclusion perpetua to death shall not be allowed to avail of the provision on plea-bargaining.
Death shall not be imposed when the guilty person is below 18 years old at the time of commission or more than 70 years of age; in such cases, the penalty shall be reclusion perpetua.
Under amended Article 81, execution is by electrocution, with preference over other sentences; the law also provides for possible anesthesia at the moment of execution if the condemned desires, a later change to gas poisoning when facilities are provided by the Bureau of Prisons, and execution not later than one year after the judgment becomes final.