Stiffer penalties will be given to persons who committed treason, sedition, rebellion and other high crimes after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 10951 last Tuesday, amending the amount of penalties under the Revised Penal Code.
With the new law, those who commit treason shall be punished with reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment and a fine not exceeding P4 million from the previous P20,000.
An alien residing in the Philippines, who commits acts of treason “shall be punished by reclusion temporal to death and shall pay a fine not exceeding P4 million.” Reclusion temporal involves imprisonment of 12 years and 1 day to 20 years.
Those who conspire to commit treason, shall be punished respectively by prision mayor and a fine not exceeding P2 million and prison correctional and a fine not exceeding P1 million.
Those committing conspiracy to commit coup d’etat, rebellion or insurrection shall be punished by prision mayor in its minimum period with a fine not exceeding P1 million from the previous P8,000.
The conspiracy and proposal to commit rebellion or insurrection shall be punished respectively, by prision correctional in its maximum and a fine of no more than P1 million and prision correctional in its medium period with a fine not exceeding P400,000. John Paolo Bencito
Those who commit sedition would suffer the penalty of prision mayor in its minimum period and a fine not exceeding P1 million from the previous P10,000. Those conspiring to commit sedition would suffer the penalty of prision correctional in its medium period and a fine not exceeding P400,000; while inciting to sedition will be penalized with prision correctional in its maximum period and a fine not exceeding P400,000.
Direct assault will be penalized with prision correctional in its medium and maximum periods, and a fine of P200,000. Indirect assault would likewise be penalized with prision correctional in its minimum and medium periods, with fine not exceeding P100,000.
The new law raised fines for unlawful arrest to ₱100,000 from ₱500 and for falsification by private individuals and use of falsified documents, ₱1 million from ₱5,000.
A stiffer penalty was also imposed for malversation of public funds from prison correctional to reclusion perpetua if the misused funds range from ₱40,000 to more than ₱8.8 million, while those who committed swindling will be sentenced to a 20-year imprisonment if amount of the fraud is more than P4 million.
Any person causing alarms and scandals will face arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding P40,000 while penalty for prostitution is arresto menor to prisión correctional or a fine not more than ₱20,000.
An abortion practiced by a physician or midwife shall be dealt with arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding ₱100,000.
Any person who committed grave felonies will still be accorded with capital punishment or penalties which in any of their periods are afflictive, while the punishment for those who committed light felonies will be increased from 200 pesos to P40,000 — along with arresto menor.
Public officers who use maliciously obtained search warrants and abuse legally obtained ones would likewise be slapped with the penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum to prision correctional, and fine not exceeding P200,000.
