Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has a “right to dream” when he claimed that the proposed restoration of the death penalty in the country was already dead in the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said on Thursday.

Sotto, who is pushing for the death penalty for high-level drug trafficking, also described as “laughable” Drilon’s claim that 13 senators are likely to vote against the death penalty bill.

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“Meron tayong tinatawag na demokrasya. Meron s’yang kaparatang mag-isip ng sarili nya at meron din syang karapatang managinip. Wala namang pumigil sa ating managinip,” the Majority Leader said in an interview over AksyonTV.

“Ngayon kung manghuhula ka ng labing-tatlo (13)… medyo katawa tawa sa amin yun. Sapagkat doon sa amin unpredictable ang boto kung tutuusin e,” he said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Drilon said the death penalty bill was already dead in the Senate as 13 senators were likely to vote against it.

READ: Death penalty is dead — Drilon

Aside from Drilon, all five other members of the Senate minority bloc — Senators Bam Aquino, Francis Pangilinan, Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros and Antonio Trillanes IV — are against the bill.

At least six members from the majority bloc — Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senators Richard Gordon, Francis Escudero, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Nancy Binay and Grace Poe — have openly expressed in various interviews their opposition on the measure.

But contrary to Drilon’s claim, Sotto said many of their colleagues in the Senate had told him that they would support the measure if the capital punishment would only be confined to high-level drug trafficking.

Sotto also assailed those saying that they would only support the measure once the country’s judicial system was reformed or that the death penalty was anti-poor.

“Ang isang mga dahilan na sinasabi doon e kasi hindi daw perpekto, imperfect daw ang justice system natin kaya daw ganun…” he said.

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“So kung bulok yung judiciary, huwag tayo gagawa ng batas na sila na mag i-institute dahil bulok sila, ganun ba? So tayo ngayon e ibabase natin ang ating aksyon sa aksyon ng ibang departamento?”

As to the claim that the death penalty was anti-poor, Sotto assured that it would only be imposed on drug lords.

“Hindi, wala tayong patayin na mahirap dito sa death penalty. Ang papatayin natin, drug lord. Meron bang mahirap na drug lord? Kapag nakakita sila ng mahirap na drug lord, bubunutin ko yung batas ko. Yung bill ko, iwi-withdraw ko,” the Majority Leader added.

Sotto acceded that the measure could not get the approval of the Senate before the June 2 adjournment of the first regular session of the 17th Congress but by August or September, he said, the chamber might be able to vote on it.

The House of Representatives has already passed the death penalty bill but the same measure remains pending at the Senate committee on justice and human rights being chaired by Gordon. CBB/rga

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