What is P100,000 to compensate a person who had been incarcerated for a crime he did not commit?

For Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao, the amount is “still frugal” but not paltry if compared to the maximum P10,000 given by government to the innocent who wrongly suffers imprisonment for committing a crime.

Aggabao has filed House Bill 1770 to increase the maximum compensation government is tasked to give persons unjustly detained or imprisoned.

Now chairman of the House Committee on Revision of Laws, Aggabao said Republic Act No. 7309 which provides the grant of indemnification to the innocent and persons victimized of violent crimes has been hailed as a landmark legislation when passed in 1992.

The law provides indemnification of P1,000 for every month a qualified claimant had been incarcerated.

It also grants reimbursement of hospitalization expenses, compensation for lost income and others for claimants who were “physically injured, psychologically scarred and permanently incapacitated.”

Application for compensation can be filed six months after the claimant has been released from detention or immediately after being acquitted of charges against him.

However, Aggabao pointed out that there is now a need to amend the law because it sets a ceiling of only P10,000 for claims.

“This amount is now paltry and inconsequential,” he said.

The administration lawmaker said the P10,000 has been “depreciated badly”, adding that it is “probably a tenth of its worth in 1992.”

“Under the proposed bill, the maximum recoverable amount is P100,000 which, to be sure, is still frugal, but nonetheless is a remarkable improvement on the original amount of P10,000,” Aggabao said.