Bill seeks to indemnify wrongfully jailed persons

A bill seeking to indemnify innocent persons for each year they were wrongfully jailed has been filed at the House of Representatives. Arguing that innocent persons “especially the poor" have been jailed, “at times without due process," Albay Rep. Al Francis Bichara said House Bill 1138 provides that persons who were detained and later acquitted or found innocent by an appropriate court’s final judgment will be indemnified by the government, at P60,000 per year of detention. The measure, which Bichara authored, further provides that if the detention is less than one year, the rate of compensation will be computed at P5,000 per month. However, the compensation has set limits. It will apply only to those who have been declared innocent after their case was tried; it will not apply if the complainant merely desists or fails to prosecute. Bichara, chairman of the House committee on foreign affairs, explained that the proposed law derives from the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which guarantees the right of every person to life, liberty, and property and to due process of law. "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," he said. He added: "In any imperfect society just like ours, persons especially the poor have been deprived of their liberty wrongfully and at times without due process of law." There were cases where an accused had been languishing and spending his productive years in jail only to be declared innocent by the court some years or even decades later, the lawmaker said. Nothing can fully compensate for the unjust deprivation of one's liberty, Bichara added, but still the government should rectify the injustice done. "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," he said. Once the bill is enacted into law, it will be allocated an initial fund of P10 million, which will be included in the annual budget of the Department of Justice.—Amita O. Legaspi/JV, GMANews.TV