RESOLUTION PROPOSING THE SENATE RATIFICATION OF PROTOCOLII OF THE INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ONCIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS WHEREAS,the death sentence of LEO P. ECHEGARAYandseveral have been affirmed by the Supreme Court; WHEREAS,underthe Death Penalty Law (R.A. 7659), the execution of their death sentences will be carried out not later than one year after the judgementhas becomefinal(Art. 81); WHEREAS,Mrs. Silvestra Pilo-Echegaray, mother of Leo P. Echegaray, addressed letter to this Commission as well as Senator Raul Roco, then Chairman of the Senate Committee on Justice and HumanRights, appealing to the authorities that the death sentence of her son be commutedtolife imprisonment. WHEREAS,inthe reply of Mrs. Echegaray and Senator Raul Roco, the Commission on Human Rights sent them copies of the Resolution of the Commission on Human Rights and a Qualified Concurring Separate Opinion urging the Re-Examination of Death Penalty Law (R.A. 7659) dated March 6, 1997, stating the reasonfor said re-examination; WHEREAS, the said Resolution and Separate Opinion were also sent to His Excellency President Fidel V. Ramos appealing to him to exercise his executive power to at least commute the sentence to life imprisonment of Leo P. Echegaray and other several accused whose death sentence have been affirmed by the Supreme Court, in the meantime a re-examination and teview of the Death Penalty Lawis being considered; WHEREAS, the aforesaid Resolution also appealed to the Philippine Senate to ratify Protocol II of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights. Said Protocol whichtook effect in July 1991 appealsto all states to abolish death penalty in their respective statutes. Morethan half of the U.N. Member States have already abolished death penalty in their respective jurisdictions; WHEREAS, the Commission on HumanRights received letters from several human rights organizations and recently from the Organization Mondiale Contra La Torture (World Organization Against Torture) which was coursed through the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva reminding that the Philippines is a State Party to the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatments or Punishments and the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which prohibit the infliction of any kind of physical or mental pains as a form of punishment. A copyofsaid Protocol is hereto attached. 31