Act No.

4013 (Indeterminate Sentence Law), as amended

Three things to know about the Indeterminate Sentence Law:

(1) Its purpose;

(2) Instances when it does not apply; and

(3) How it operates

Indeterminate Sentence Law governs whether the crime is punishable under the
Revised Penal Code or a special Law. It is not limited to violations of the Revised Penal
Code.

It applies only when the penalty served is imprisonment. If not by imprisonment, then it
does not apply.

Purpose

The purpose of the Indeterminate Sentence law is to avoid prolonged imprisonment,

because it is proven to be more destructive than constructive to the offender. So, the
purpose of the Indeterminate Sentence Law in shortening the possible detention of the
convict in jail is to save valuable human resources. In other words, if the valuable
human resources were allowed prolonged confinement in jail, they would deteriorate.
Purpose is to preserve economic usefulness for these people for having committed a
crime -- to reform them rather than to deteriorate them and, at the same time, saving the
government expenses of maintaining the convicts on a prolonged confinement in jail.

If the crime is a violation of the Revised Penal Code, the court will impose a sentence
that has a minimum and maximum. The maximum of the indeterminate sentence will be
arrived at by taking into account the attendant mitigating and/or aggravating
circumstances according to Article 64 of the Revised Penal Code. In arriving at the
minimum of the indeterminate sentence, the court will take into account the penalty
prescribed for the crime and go one degree lower. Within the range of one degree lower,
the court will fix the minimum for the indeterminate sentence, and within the range of the
penalty arrived at as the maximum in the indeterminate sentence, the court will fix the
maximum of the sentence. If there is a privilege mitigating circumstance which has been
taken in consideration in fixing the maximum of the indeterminate sentence, the
minimum shall be based on the penalty as reduced by the privilege mitigating
circumstance within the range of the penalty next lower in degree.
If the crime is a violation of a special law, in fixing the maximum of the indeterminate
sentence, the court will impose the penalty within the range of the penalty prescribed by
the special law, as long as it will not exceed the limit of the penalty. In fixing the
minimum, the court can fix a penalty anywhere within the range of penalty prescribed by
the special law, as long as it will not be less than the minimum limit of the penalty under
said law. No mitigating and aggravating circumstances are taken into account.

The minimum and the maximum referred to in the Indeterminate Sentence Law are not
periods. So, do not say, maximum or minimum period. For the purposes of the
indeterminate Sentence Law, use the term minimum to refer to the duration of the
sentence which the convict shall serve as a minimum, and when we say maximum, for
purposes of ISLAW, we refer to the maximum limit of the duration that the convict may
be held in jail. We are not referring to any period of the penalty as enumerated in Article
71.

Courts are required to fix a minimum and a maximum of the sentence that they are to
impose upon an offender when found guilty of the crime charged. So, whenever the
Indeterminate Sentence Law is applicable, there is always a minimum and maximum of
the sentence that the convict shall serve. If the crime is punished by the Revised Penal
Code, the law provides that the maximum shall be arrived at by considering the
mitigating and aggravating circumstances in the commission of the crime according to
the proper rules of the Revised Penal Code. To fix the maximum, consider the mitigating
and aggravating circumstances according to the rules found in Article 64. This means

(1) Penalties prescribed by the law for the crime committed shall be imposed in the
medium period if no mitigating or aggravating circumstance;

(2) If there is aggravating circumstance, no mitigating, penalty shall be imposed in the

maximum;

(3) If there is mitigating circumstance, no aggravating, penalty shall be in the minimum;

(4) If there are several mitigating and aggravating circumstances, they shall offset
against each other. Whatever remains, apply the rules.

(5) If there are two or more mitigating circumstance and no aggravating circumstance,
penalty next lower in degree shall be the one imposed.

Rule under Art 64 shall apply in determining the maximum but not in determining the
minimum.

In determining the applicable penalty according to the Indeterminate Sentence Law,

there is no need to mention the number of years, months and days; it is enough that the
name of the penalty is mentioned while the Indeterminate Sentence Law is applied. To
fix the minimum and the maximum of the sentence, penalty under the Revised Penal
Code is not the penalty to be imposed by court because the court must apply the
Indeterminate Sentence Law. The attendant mitigating and/or aggravating
circumstances in the commission of the crime are taken into consideration only when
the maximum of the penalty is to be fixed. But in so far as the minimum is concerned,
the basis of the penalty prescribed by the Revised Penal Code, and go one degree
lower than that. But penalty one degree lower shall be applied in the same manner that
the maximum is also fixed based only on ordinary mitigating circumstances. This is true
only if the mitigating circumstance taken into account is only an ordinary mitigating
circumstance. If the mitigating circumstance is privileged, you cannot follow the law in
so far as fixing the minimum of the indeterminate sentence is concerned; otherwise, it
may happen that the maximum of the indeterminate sentence is lower than its minimum.

In one Supreme Court ruling, it was held that for purposes of applying the Indeterminate
Sentence Law, the penalty prescribed by the Revised Penal Code and not that which
may be imposed by court. This ruling, however, is obviously erroneous. This is so
because such an interpretation runs contrary to the rule of pro reo, which provides that
the penal laws should always be construed and applied in a manner liberal or lenient to
the offender. Therefore, the rule is, in applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, it is that
penalty arrived at by the court after applying the mitigating and aggravating
circumstances that should be the basis.

Crimes punished under special law carry only one penalty; there are no degree or
periods. Moreover, crimes under special law do not consider mitigating or aggravating
circumstance present in the commission of the crime. So in the case of statutory
offense, no mitigating and no aggravating circumstances will be taken into account. Just
the same, courts are required in imposing the penalty upon the offender to fix a
minimum that the convict should serve, and to set a maximum as the limit of that
sentence. Under the law, when the crime is punished under a special law, the court may
fix any penalty as the maximum without exceeding the penalty prescribed by special law
for the crime committed. In the same manner, courts are given discretion to fix a
minimum anywhere within the range of the penalty prescribed by special law, as long as
it will not be lower than the penalty prescribed.

Disqualification may be divided into three, according to

(1) The time committed;

(2) The penalty imposed; and

(3) The offender involved.

The Indeterminate Sentence Law shall not apply to:

(1) Persons convicted of offense punishable with death penalty or life imprisonment;

(2) Persons convicted of treason, conspiracy or proposal to commit treason;

(3) Persons convicted of misprision of treason, rebellion, sedition, espionage;

(4) Persons convicted of piracy;

(5) Persons who are habitual delinquents;

(6) Persons who shall have escaped from confinement or evaded sentence;

(7) Those who have been granted conditional pardon by the Chief Executive and shall
have violated the term thereto;

(8) Those whose maximum term of imprisonment does not exceed one year, but not to
those already sentenced by final judgment at the time of the approval of Indeterminate
Sentence Law.

Although the penalty prescribed for the felony committed is death or reclusion perpetua,
if after considering the attendant circumstances, the imposable penalty is reclusion
temporal or less, the Indeterminate Sentence Law applies (People v. Cempron, 187
SCRA 278).