MANILA, PHILIPPINES - Two recent massacres in the province of Laguna that claimed the lives of at least 18 persons have revived debates in the Senate over whether or not to restore the death penalty.

Neophyte Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri pushed the restoration of capital punishment for cases related to drug trafficking and multiple homicide.

Zuburi's proposal was triggered by the robbery at the Rizal Commercial and Banking Corp. in Cabuyao, in which eight bank employees, a security guard and a client were killed execution-style; and the killing of eight persons, four of them children, by a man who ran amok and shot at houses in Barangay (village) Urnalan, Calamba, early Monday.

'The police and the military will need an iron hand, represented by the death penalty, to cope with rising criminality,' Zubiri said in a statement. 'It does not mean that the police and military are letting their guard down. Neither would the reinstatement of the death penalty mean there will be neglect of the rights of the accused.'

But Zubiri's proposal was immediately shot down by his colleagues in the majority bloc, including Senate President Manuel Villar.

Villar said he saw no need to restore the capital punishment and that it was premature to even discuss the issue at this time.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago also opposed Zubiri's proposal, saying it would go against the 'global mainstream,' since the death penalty has been condemned not only by major churches but also by the United Nations and the European Union.

'Death is not the answer to death,' she said. 'The answer to death is life.'

Instead of pushing for the restoration of the death penalty, Santiago urged authorities to step up their investigations of the killings to identify the perpetrators of the Laguna massacres.