Law abolishing death penalty signed on June 24

President Arroyo, who wants the death penalty abolished, said yesterday she will sign a law scrapping capital punishment on June 24, before she leaves for the Vatican.

Congress last week approved a bill abolishing the death penalty despite protests from relatives of crime victims who believe Mrs. Arroyo, a staunch Roman Catholic, rushed approval to please Pope Benedict XVI. The President needs to sign the bill for it to become law.

Mrs. Arroyo will leave on June 24 for Italy before traveling on to Spain.

"That’s a good day to sign the death penalty abolition," she said. "Not only is it on the eve of my departure, but it is the feast of St. John the Baptist who was a victim of death penalty in his time."

The President made the announcement in her opening message at the Joint Cabinet-Regional Development Councils (RDCs) meeting at the Isabela Hotel in Cauayan City.

In a rare display of bicameral accord, the Senate and the House of Representatives agreed to strike down Republic Act 7659 or the death penalty law earlier this month.

Mrs. Arroyo’s first stop will be Milan before continuing to Vatican City to meet with Pope Benedict.

She also will meet separately with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

From Italy, she will travel to Spain to hold talks with King Juan Carlos III and President Jose Luis Gonzalez Zapatero.

Papal Nuncio Fernando Filoni, the Vatican’s envoy to Manila, early this week praised the Philippine government for moving to abolish capital punishment and taking "this step toward the culture of life."

Filoni, however, pointed out that "other fundamental rights of a person have not been properly defended."

He did not elaborate, but left-wing groups have criticized the government’s crackdown on opponents and Mrs. Arroyo’s failure to stop a wave of extrajudicial killings of their members, allegedly by security forces.

More than 600 left-wing activists and their supporters have been killed since Mrs. Arroyo came to power in 2001. Her government has repeatedly denied responsibility and has ordered an investigation into the killings.

More than 1,200 death-row convicts — including at least 11 al-Qaeda-linked militants — will benefit from the removal of capital punishment.

The 1987 Constitution abolished the death penalty that dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ government used to execute about a dozen people convicted of rape and drug charges.

Congress restored the death penalty in 1994 for heinous crimes such as murder, child rape and kidnapping. Seven people convicted of rape and robbery with killings have been executed since then. — AP, Paolo Romero