Magandang Buhay

Section19
(1)Excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor
cruel, degrading or inhuman punishment
inflicted. Neither shall the death penalty be
imposed, unless for compelling reasons
involving heinous crimes the Congress hereafter
provides for it. Any death penalty already
imposed shall be reduced to reclusion perpetua.

Death Penalty for Heinous Crimes

(Republic Act No. 7659)
An act to impose the death penalty on certain heinous
crimes
Amend several provisions of the Revised Penal Code of
the Philippines.
Approved on December 13, 1993.

June 24,2006
Republic Act No. 9346 entitled An Act Prohibiting the
Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines was
signed by Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

(2)The employment of physical, psychological, or

degrading punishment against any prisoner or
detainee or to use of substandard or inadequate
penal facilities under subhuman conditions shall
be dealt with by law.

A fine is excessive when under any circumstance.

A punishment is cruel and unusual if it is flagrantly and
plainly oppressive and wholly disproportionate to the
nature of the offense as to shock the moral sense of the
community.
Death penalty, which is recognized by the 1935 and
1973 constitutions, is not considered as cruel and
unusual punishment.

Section 20
No person shall be imprisoned for dept or
non-payment of poll tax.

Poll tax is a tax of a fixed amount imposed on the

individuals residing within a specified territory, whether
citizen or not, without regard to their property or the
occupation they are engaged in.
Debt means any liability to pay money out of a contract
expressed or implied and not payment, arising from crimes
or delicts.

Exceptions: There is no violation of section 20 in the

following cases:
To imprison a person for failure to pay license fees or
taxes.
To imprison one for failure to pay fines and penalties
imposed by the court in a criminal case.
To penalize an employer who refused to pay his
employees their corresponding wages

SECTION 21
No person shall be twice put in jeopardy of
punishment for the same offense. If an act is
punished by a law and an ordinance, conviction,
or acquittal under either shall constitute a bar to
another prosecution for the same act.

The right against double jeopardy means that when a

person is charged with an offense and the case is terminated
either by acquittal or conviction or in any other manner
without the expressed consent of the accused.
An accused is placed in legal jeopardy when subjected or
tried under the following conditions:
He has been previously brought to trial upon a valid
complaint or information;

Information/complaint was filed before a court of

competent jurisdiction;
He has been arraigned and has pleaded to the charge;
He has been convicted or acquitted or the case against
him has been dismissed or otherwise terminated without his
express consent;
He is presently charged for the same offense.

Section 22
No ex-post facto law or bill of attainder shall
be enacted.

Ex post facto law

An act of punishable in a manner in which it was
not punishable when committed or which increases the
punishment more than what the law annexed to the crime when
committed.
Ex post facto law partakes in any of the following forms:
A law that makes an action already done, criminal and
punishes such action;
A law that aggravates a crime or makes it greater than that it
was when committed;

A law that changes the punishment;

A law that alters the legal rules of evidence and receives
less or different testimony of the offense in order to easily
convict the offender.
Bill of Attainder
A legislative act which inflicts punishment without
judicial trial. The prohibition against the enactment of bill of
attainder is designed as a general safeguard against
legislative exercise of the judicial function, or simply, trial
by legislature.