By Roy Pelovello

A proposal to restore the death penalty is pitting the Catholic Church against the evangelical group Jesus Is Lord Movement.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales reiterated the clergy’s official stand on the issue, by saying that the “Church is for the restoration of life.”

But party-list Rep. Joel Villanueva, son of evangelist Eduardo “Bro. Eddie” Villanueva, yesterday supported moves for the reimposition of the death penalty on drug-related offenses.

Earlier, outspoken Archbishop Oscar Cruz said the Catholic Church is opposed to moves for the reimposition of death penalty, a proposal revived by the controversy on the drug peddling case against three sons of affluent families from Alabang.

Rosales said that killing a person for a crime he committed is not the way to discourage others from committing crime. Instead, that person should be given a chance to correct the mistakes he had made against other people and against the society, Rosales said.

For Villanueva, there is a need to reconsider reviving the death penalty law that Congress abolished in June 2006. “It’s very obvious that we should revisit the repealed law. But most of all, we must ensure that it should be implemented properly,” Villanueva said.

“God is a God of justice. If the law is implemented properly it would have the intended effect against those who violate the law,” Villanueva said. “For example, if you increase the penalty for jaywalking from P100 to P5,000, don’t you think it would result in an improvement of the situation?

“They are menace to the society, so they have to pay for their crimes,” he said.

Officials of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Dangerous Drugs Board supported moves in Congress to reimpose the death penalty on drug dealers.

House Speaker Prospero Nograles joined the clamor for the death penalty.

“That depends on whether the House oversight committee on dangerous drugs will resolve to revive the death penalty on drugs,” said Nograles.

Muntinlupa Rep. Rufino Biazon earlier said he would file his own version of a bill to reimpose death penalty on drug-related crimes.

But other members of the House such as Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and Parañaque Reps. Roilo Golez and Eduardo Zialcita joined the opponents of the proposal, saying that the death penalty was never a deterrent to crime.