Duterte OKs new Revised Penal Code, higher fines to be imposed

MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday signed into law Republic Act 10951, amending the Revised Penal Code.

The new law updates fines provisions under the Revised Penal Code which have been unchanged since it was enacted more than 8 decades ago.

The law adjusts fines, as well as the amount or the value of the property and damage on which a penalty is set.

Among the adjustments made were in the identification of penalties:
- Afflictive Penalty - if it exceeds P1.2 million
- Correctional Penalty - it it does not exceed P1.2 million but not less than P40,000
- Light Penalty - if it be less than P40,000

The law also adjusts fines imposed on crimes under the Revised Penal Code. For example, the fine for the crime of treason has been adjusted to not more than P400,000 for both Filipino citizens and foreigners residing in the Philippines, instead of P20,000 as prescribed under the code.

The revised law also increased the punishment against people or organizations that will publish as news "any false news which may endanger the public order, or cause damage to the interest or credit of the State."

Penalty for such crime is imprisonment for 1 month and 1 day to six months and a fine of P40,000-P200,000.

The law's author Senator Franklin Drilon earlier said that amending the Revised Penal Code would benefit some 50,000 convicted prisoners who would likely be released or have their sentences reduced.