Nine reclusion perpetua sentences, each equivalent to 40 years, to the layman would mean 360 years in prison for a convict receiving that penalty. That is not so, according to law.
Article 70 of the Revised Penal Code states that if multiple penalties could not be served simultaneously, the imposed penalties may be executed successively, following the order of their severity.
However, it limited the maximum duration of a convict’s sentence. Under the “three-fold rule,” of Article 70, a convict can be punished only up to three times the most severe penalty imposed, and such maximum period shall not exceed 40 years.
“No other penalty to which he may be liable shall be inflicted after the sum total of those imposed equals the same maximum period. Such maximum period shall in no case exceed 40 years,” Article 70 states. —INQUIRER RESEARCH
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