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Republic of the Philippines Ee an

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES \ Br: a
Quezon City Xt

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS ~
FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL no, 9232

LE 7 Z Introduced by Honorable Cristal L. Bagatsing _

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Presidential Decree No. 1689 increases the penalty of swindling
under Article 315 and 316 from life imprisonment to death, if swindling
is committed by a syndicate of five or more persons formed with intent
of carrying unlawful or illegal act, transaction or scheme and
defraudation results in misappropriation of moneys contributed by
stockholders or members of rural banks, cooperatives, samahang nayon
of farmers’ association or funds contributed by corporations or
associations for general welfare (April 1, 1980). If not committed by a
syndicate, the penalty is reclusion temporal to reclusion perpetua, if the
amount defrauded exceeds P100,000.00 (Fundamentals of Criminal Law
Review, Ninth edition, pp.848),


The very intention of this law is to imposed higher penalty to acts
committed by syndicates composed of five or more persons. Since it
affects people’s faith or trust in our economy, it is more of economic
sabotage. Scams through pyramiding is an abuse of confidence where
syndicates were able to operate victimizing hundreds of Filipino people.
However, the mastermind of these scams were able to evade the
maximum penalty by simply alleging that the complainant failed to
establish that the crime was committed by a syndicate of five or more
persons. Therefore the intent of PD 1689 to impose the maximum
penalty for syndicated estafa was defeated.

Hence, the immediate passage of this bill is earnestly sought.

7

CRISTAL LXBAGATSING
Representative
5* District, Manila


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO.8 232

Introduced by Honorable Cristal L. Bagatsing a

AN ACT
REDEFINING THE CRIME OF SYNDICATED ESTAFA, AMENDING FOR
THE PURPOSE SECTION 1 OF PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 1689

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Section 1 of Presidential Decree No. 1689 is hereby amended to
Read as follows:

“Section 1. Any person or persons who shall commit estafa or other forms of
swindling as defined in Article 315 and 316 of the Revised Penal Code, as
amended, shall be punished by life imprisonment to death if the swindling
(estafa) is committed by a syndicate consisting of TWO [five] or more
persons formed with the intention of carrying out the unlawful or illegal act,
transaction, enterprise or scheme and the defraudation results in the
misappropriation of moneys contributed by stockholders, or members of
rural banks cooperative, “samahang nayon(s)” , or farmers’ association, or
funds solicited by corporations/ associations from the general public.


“When not committed by a syndicate as above defined, the penalty “
imposable shall be reclusion temporal to reclusion perpetua if the amount of
the fraud exceeds 100,000 pesos.”

SEC. 2. Effectivity Clause. ~ This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its
publication in the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers of general circulation.

Approved.