Wrongfully convicted to get just compensation

A P10-million allocation for the compensation of persons wrongfully jailed has been proposed in the House of Representatives. Rep. Al Francis Bichara of the Second District of Albay made the proposal under House Bill 1138 which provides an indemnification of P60,000 a year of detention to persons detained and were acquitted or found innocent by a final judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction.

Bichara’s measure further provides that the rate of compensation shall be computed at P5,000 a month if the detention is less than one year.

Bichara, also the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, noted that his proposed measure is in accordance with the Bill of Rights in the Constitution which guarantees the right of every person to life, liberty, property or to due process of law.

“In any imperfect society just like ours, there are people, especially the poor, have been deprived of their liberty wrongfully and at times without due process of law. Worse, there are cases where an accused had been languishing and spending their productive years in jail only to be found out decades later that he was innocent,” Bichara said.

“But no one shall be deprived the equal protection of the laws. This Constitutional guarantee of the right to be free, is the most cherished right of any human being,” Bichara pointed out.

The compensation, Bichara said, will be limited to those who have been declared innocent after trial of the case and not on mere desistance or failure to prosecute by the complainant.

Bichara, however, conceded that the financial assistance for those who were wrongfully detained is not meant to compensate for the sufferings not due them in the first place.

“This bill does not claim to compensate the sufferings, deprivations or trauma caused by erroneous detention, but through this it is hoped that the State will be able to rectify an injustice and redress a wrong,” Bichara said.

In the Senate, Sen. Loren Legarda also pushes for the rights of wrongfully convicted through Senate Bill 1409, which seeks to compensate a person wrongfully convicted of a crime for as much as twice his or her income before incarceration or P100,000 for each year he or she spent in jail.

Legarda said the proposal seeks to indemnify the wrongfully accused person for the loss, injury and damage brought about by the conviction. –LLANESCA T. PANTI, Manila Times