Transcript of Ambush Interview with Senate Minority Leader Frank Drilon

Drilon: The death penalty bill is not part of the legislative agenda. To me, I have two conclusions: the Senate President does not believe in the death penalty or number two, he is not confident that he will be able to carry the Senate insofar as the death penalty bill is concerned.

Q: May promise daw na at least madebate lang?

Drilon: Hindi ko alam but it's still in the Committee on Justice.

Q: Wala pa yung legal opinion ng DOJ?

Drilon: Wala. The issue was whether or not the Second Optional Protocol was ratified and the opinion of the Secretary of Justice is sought. Again, the situation is the previous administration specifically President Arroyo and then Secretary of Foreign Affairs that with the law which prohibited the imposition of death penalty, we are deemed to have ratified the Second Optional Protocol. They took the position that it was ratified and the United Nations was duly notified that we have ratified that Second Optional Protocol. The UN did not look behind the notice of ratification and considered this as a ratification, and therefore, bound the Philippines to that act of ratification. I will repeat, the UN considered it ratified on the basis of notice of Arroyo and Romulo. The executive took the position that it was ratified and the UN said that okay if you said it's ratified, we do not question and believe that it is ratified.