A bill filed in the House of Representatives is calling for stiffer penalties for law enforcers involved in covering up heinous crimes.
House Bill (HB) 7972, authored by Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan of Bico Saro party-list group, aims to amend Article 19 of the Revised Penal Code to include a section on persons in authority acting as accessories to the commission of heinous crimes.
Once enacted, law enforcers and other persons in authority involved in covering up evidence in drug trafficking and other heinous crimes shall be slapped with the harsher penalty of up to 20 years in prison instead of the current maximum 12-year jail term.
“Law enforcers and other persons in authority are responsible for maintaining public order and preventing crime. They should be held to a higher standard of behavior and conduct as protectors of the people,” said Yamsuan, a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“Thus, when they turn out to be the problem themselves by acting as accessories to the commission of heinous crimes, they become hoodlums in uniform who deserve to be severely punished under the law,” he added.
Persons in authority who act as accessories to the commission of heinous crimes are those who directly caused or ordered the
destruction or concealment of vital evidence, Yamsuan said.
Under HB 7972, persons in authority who act as accessories “shall suffer the penalty of one degree lower than that prescribed by law for the consummated felony,” if the offense is a heinous crime under existing laws.
The Penal Code currently imposes a penalty of two degrees lower than
that prescribed by law if the offenders acted as accessories.
Yamsuan said that since heinous crimes such as drug trafficking are meted with the highest penalty of reclusion perpetua or imprisonment of b etween 20 to 40 years, accessories are penalized two degrees lower under the current law, or from 6 to 12 years in prison.
Under HB 7972, Yamsuan wants law enforcers and other persons in authority who acted as accessories to the commission of heinous offenses to be punished with a stiffer penalty of one degree lower than the principal.
This means persons in authority who acted as accessories to the commission of heinous crimes will be penalized with reclusion temporal or imprisonment of between 12 to 20 years under the bill filed by Yamsuan with Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte.
In Republic Act 7659, heinous crimes include the importation, distribution, manufacturing and possession of illegal drugs. Other offenses classified as heinous crimes are treason; piracy in general and mutiny on the high seas in Philippine waters; qualified piracy; qualified bribery; parricide; murder; infanticide; kidnapping and serious illegal detention; robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons; destructive arson; and rape.
