Bato pushes death penalty for plunder

Metro Manila, Philippines - Adding to the growing list of proposals to revive the death penalty, Senator Bato dela Rosa has filed a bill seeking to carry out lethal injection for the crime of plunder, amid an ongoing corruption scandal involving flood control projects.

The bill, filed on Wednesday, Sept. 3, seeks to amend existing laws—including the current prohibition on capital punishment—to allow for the reimposition of the death penalty.

Dela Rosa cited anomalies in flood control projects, which the Department of Finance said have resulted in up to ₱118.5 billion in economic losses from 2023 to 2025 alone.

“When public officials who are duty bound to uphold the integrity and dignity of the government in its disbursement of funds failed to do so, they must be meted out with the highest penalty,” Dela Rosa, a former Philippine National Police chief, said in the explanatory note.

Several bills seeking to reinstate the death penalty have been filed in the 20th Congress, including another proposal by Dela Rosa calling for capital punishment in cases of large-scale drug trafficking.

The Philippines became the first Asian country to abolish the death penalty in 1987, following the fall of the Marcos dictatorship. It was reinstated in 1993, then abolished again in 2006.