Drilon pushes for amendments, higher fines in ‘archaic’ Revised Penal Code

Senate President Frank Drilon. PRIB FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Franklin Drilon has filed a bill that seeks to amend the country’s nearly 85-year-old penal law, which imposes, among others, a fine as low as P5 only.

Drilon said he filed Senate Bill No. 2680 to adjust the threshold amounts used in determining the criminal liability for various crimes and the amount of imposable fines under the Revised Penal Code which was enacted in 1930.

Under the present law, a person found guilty of swindling or estafa would face imprisonment ranging from four years and two months up to 12 years even if the amount involved is only P12,000 to P22, 000. For the same amount, a thief would be jailed for up to 8 years.

Drilon said his bill will increase the fines for various crimes to deter criminality in the country. It will restore the proportionality of the crime to the punishment by revising the amounts set in the various provisions of the Revised Penal Code to their present values.

If the bill becomes a law, the P5 fine that can be imposed under the present law will be increased to P1,000, while the P22,000 maximum fine will be increased to P4.4 million.

He said a person who commits treason, for instance, would be fined a maximum amount of P4 million instead of P20,000.

For conspiracy and proposal to commit coup d’état, rebellion or insurrection, the maximum imposable fine will be increased to P1.6 million from P8,000; for maltreatment of prisoners, it will be P100,000 instead of P500; for unlawful arrest, it will become P100,000 from P500; for indirect assault, the maximum imposable fine will be P100,000 from P500; and for falsification by private individuals and use of falsified documents, it will be P1 million from P5,000.

“In undertaking these changes to an archaic law, we intend to craft a sound, fair and effective policy against criminality that reflects a proper balance among the established goals of criminal justice,” Drilon said in a statement on Friday.

He said it is high time that the Revised Penal Code should be amended to today’s values “to make it more reflective of the present political, socioeconomic and cultural settings.”

“Eighty years had inevitably dulled the edge of a once sharp measure. The penalties and fines for various crimes under the Revised Penal Code are no longer commensurate to the crime committed,” he said.

If the penal law is not amended now, Drilon said it runs the risk of violating the constitutional prohibition against cruel and excessive punishment particularly for crimes involving amounts which by today’s standards are already petty.

“The P200 our elders had in their pockets back in the 1930s surely had higher value than the P200 in our wallets today,” he said.

“Even the Supreme Court, in Lito Corpuz vs. People of the Philippines, turned the spotlight on the perceived injustice brought about by the range of penalties that the courts continue to impose on crimes committed today, based on the amount of damage measured by the value of money 80 years ago,” he pointed out.

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