Arroyos urge: Punish ‘grave’ robbers

CEBU, Philippines - A move is being pushed in Congress to classify as a “separate act of robbery” the stealing of articles at cemeteries.

Representative Diosdado Macapagal-Arroyo of the 2nd Dist. of Camarines Sur and his mother, Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, have authored House Bill 6606 or the Anti-Grave Robbers Act of 2012 to amend the Revised Penal Code and create a separate act of robbery.

They said stealing cemetery articles – including gifts offered to the departed, which is part of Filipino culture – dishonors the memory of the deceased.

“…the damage done by grave robbers goes beyond the measurable as it dishonors the deceased and causes anguish to those who survived them,” the statement reads.

The Arroyos want to add a sub-provision to Article 302 of the Revised Penal Code.

Crimes punishable under the proposed “Article 302-A: Grave Robbery” include “taking of all or part of a tomb, coffin, monument, gravestone, or all part of a commemorative, decorative, or other cemetery-related article or committed in a cemetery, graveyard or burial ground”.

Those found liable for the crime will be made to suffer the penalty under the law, but one degree higher, they said. 

Under Article 299 of the Code, violators will suffer the penalty of reclusion temporal if the value of the property taken exceeds P250. Article 302, meanwhile, identifies robbery in an uninhabited place or in a private building for which violators will suffer the penalty of prision correccional if the value of the property taken exceeds P250.

The two articles, however, do not specifically mention robbery in the cemetery. —JMO (FREEMAN)