Senate approves bill vs grave robbers

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate has approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to penalize grave robbers and thieves of cemetery articles before the 15th Congress adjourned sine die – without a day being fixed for a further meeting – last Thursday.

Sen. Francis Escudero, chairman of the Committee on Justice and Human Rights and sponsor of Senate Bill 1689 or the Anti-Grave Robbers Act, said the measure seeks to create a separate act of robbery under Article 302-A of the Revised Penal Code.  It would penalize the robbery of cemetery items or the ones committed in cemeteries, graveyards or burial grounds.

Unless the House of Representatives has adopted the Senate version, the measure will be considered as an “enrolled bill,” which can be transmitted for signature of the President for it to become a law.  Otherwise, the measure will simply be archived until somebody revives it in the next Congress.

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago is the principal author of the measure.

“Grave robbery has always been a problem since time immemorial. In a culture as rich as ours, we have always honored our dead with many gifts to commemorate their lives as well as graves fit to be their final resting place,” Santiago said.

Currently, Article 302 of the Revised Penal Code states that “any robbery committed in an uninhabited place or in a building other than those mentioned in the first paragraph of Article 299, if the value of the property taken exceeds P250, shall be punished by prision correcional.”

The proposed amendment, Article 302-A, defines the circumstances involving grave robbery. “When the robbery consists in the taking of all or part of a tomb, coffin, monument, gravestone, or all or part of a commemorative, decorative, or other cemetery-related article or committed in a cemetery, graveyard or burial ground; the culprit shall suffer the penalty next higher in degree than that prescribed in the said articles.”

“The law needs to be more specific when it comes to robbery and desecration of graves and tombs. Apart from stealing or destroying property, grave robbers aggravate the grief of those who lost their loved ones and dishonor the final resting place of the deceased,” Santiago said.

Under the proposed measure, grave robbers face imprisonment of six years and one day to 12 years while the maximum penalty imposed shall be 20 years and one day to 40 years. 

 â€œFor a country that considers both All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day as national holidays, it is appropriate for our laws to reflect the Filipino’s deep-seated culture of reverence and respect for the dead,” Santiago said.