Press Release
January 12, 2008

Angara: "Make our sentencing procedures for arresto menor more flexible"

Senator Edgardo Angara pushes for requiring community service to felons sentenced with the penalty of arresto menor, instead of imposing jail sentence on them.

The senator has filed a bill authorizing the court to require community service instead of imprisonment for the penalty of arresto menor.

"Pursuant to Articles 27 and 88 of the Revised Penal Code, the penalty of arresto menor shall be from one (1) day to thirty (30) days only and shall be served either in the municipal jail or in the house of the defendant under the surveillance of an officer of the law," said Senator Angara.

This penalty is imposed on crimes involving vagrancy; alarms and scandals; slight physical injuries; theft of a thing worth not over five pesos; certain deceits; malicious mischief where the value does not exceed P200.00; or imprudence and negligence constituting a light felony.

According to Senator Angara, "giving the option of community service in place of a jail sentence to these light felonies hit two birds in one stone: first, it helps decongest our local jails, and second, it prevents the criminalization of the offender by his confinement in our overcrowded jails with other criminals with more serious offenses."

"Many of our jails are unfit for human habitation. For instance, according to an investigation of the Commission of Human Rights in 2000, the Manila City Jail houses 3,400 inmates in facilities designed to fit only a thousand. Worse, convicted prisoners are commingled with inmates awaiting trial," said Senator Angara.

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