APRIL 30, 2016

NR # 4186B

Double the current 15-year prescriptive period for filing of graft cases
A veteran House leader is confident that the proposed law increasing the
prescriptive period for filing graft cases from the current 15 years to 30 years would be
enacted within the waning days of the 16th Congress.
The proposed amendment to the anti-graft and corrupt practices law is contained in
the House-approved House Bill 4146, a substitute bill for the original HB 3425,
principally authored by Deputy Speaker and Isabela Fourth District Rep. Giorgidi B.
Aggabao.
Violators of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act should not be allowed to
escape criminal liability by mere technicality of prescription, Aggabao said, stressing that
graft and corruption is a global malaise that affects the development of nations.
The Deputy Speaker, together with the House Committee on Revision of Laws
chairperson, Rep. Marlyn L. Primicias-Agabas who signed in as co-author with Rep.
Joaquin M. Chipeco, Jr. of the substitute bill, sponsored and defended the measure in
plenary until its passage in September last year.
House Bill 4146 is entitled An Act increasing the prescriptive period from 15 to 30
years for violation of Republic Act No. 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and
Corrupt Practices Act, amending Section 11 thereof.
Aggabao noted that in the Philippines, graft and corruption has become pervasive
that it developed into a total systematic affliction.
Recently, we are dumbfounded by the grand larceny of public funds for private
pecuniary gain and benefit. Corruption is bleeding the coffers of the government and the
innocent victim is no less than the Filipino people, Aggabao stressed when he first filed
his bill in 2013.
Section 11 of R.A. No. 3019 is proposed to be amended to read as follows: Sec.11.
Prescription of Offenses. All offenses punishable under this Act shall prescribe in
(fifteen) thirty years.
The extension of another fifteen years would ensure that those who violate the said
Act would not be able to escape liability by mere technicality of the current 15-year
prescription period, Aggabao pointed out.
Violations of anti-graft and corruption laws are considered to be one of the most
difficult crimes to investigate and prosecute. It thrives in secrecy and the uncovering of

new information to build up the case relatively takes considerable amount of time, the
author pointed out.
He said records would show that those accused of violating the Anti-Graft Laws are
often made liable for their crimes only upon its discovery, either after their term or tenure
in public or even after the change in government administration.
By the time an information in the graft court is to be filed, the crime is about to
prescribe or has already prescribed, he lamented. He added that the proposed amendment
to the prescriptive period is also in compliance with the provisions of the United Nations
Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) to which the Philippines is a signatory.
Congressional records (as of April 4, 2016) would show that the House has
requested the Senate for a conference committee to reconcile any conflicting provisions of
their approved versions before both chambers could ratify their joint report for transmittal
to the Office of the President. (30) dpt