INTRODUCTION
I welcome you all today to witness the signing of this very important law (RA 8177) — the use of lethal injection as the method to implement capital punishment.

When Congress passed Republic Act 7659 in 1993 imposing the death penalty for heinous crimes, many praised it as a sure deterrent to crime. That law provided for execution by electrocution inasmuch as we still needed to put up our gas chamber.

In the debates that preceded the approval of the law, little attention was paid to the fact that the electric chair was totally burned down seven years before the law was passed. Hence, although 131 persons have been sentenced to death since the death penalty was restored, not a single person has been executed. Worse, capital punishment, which was hoped to be the ultimate preventive against the commission of heinous crimes, was beginning to be regarded by criminals merely as a threat — with no bite.
A MORE HUMANE MEANS OF EXECUTION
With the passage of this lethal injection law, we show one and all that government possesses the will to execute those who have tried to destroy order in our society through the heinous crimes they have committed.

There are several reasons for opting for lethal injection vis-a-vis the other accepted means of execution, especially in regard to its lower costs.

But it is not, however, economics that spells our main consideration. We have always been proud that we are a humane society and have accepted the reimposition of the death penalty only after so much debate and deliberation and only for the most heinous of crimes — so that the execution of criminals will also deter crime.

We believe that even criminals have the right to die peacefully, without the violence nor gruesome conditions that attend executions through the traditional means of the gas chamber, the electric chair or the hangman’s noose.

We now have a more humane, safer, more economical and easier means of administering executions through the use of lethal injections.
CLOSING
The number of inmates in the death row has increased significantly. With the passage of this Lethal Injection Law, let the criminals beware! The state will continue to pursue criminals without let-up and will not hesitate to execute those upon whom the death sentence has been finally imposed.

I thank the authors and sponsors of this law and all other legislators who have supported its passage.

I also take this occasion to call on congress once again to continue their support for legislation that aims to maintain peace and order and reduce criminality in our land.

Sa inyong lahat maraming salamat! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!