Legal Feasibility of Probation After Appeal Under Philippine Laws
LEGAL FEASIBILITY OF
PROBATION AFTER APPEAL
UNDER PHILIPPINE LAWS
Probation is a remedy which offenders must avail of at the first opportunity. As presently worded, the Probation Law requires that the application for probation must be filed within the period for perfecting an appeal. Thus, the filing of an appeal and an application for probation are mutually exclusive remedies, such that recourse to one necessarily bars resort to the other – as each will operate as an automatic waiver of the other.
Despite what appears to be the clear and categorical wording of Section 4 of the Probation Law that “no application for probation shall be entertained or granted if the defendant has perfected the appeal from the judgment of conviction,” the law itself is not at all that encompassing, plain and unambiguous such that there would be no further room for construction or interpretation. On the contrary, the provisions of the Probation Law do not address a situation wherein resort to probation is not obtainable at the time of the conviction by the trial court in view of the sentence imposed, thereby making appeal the only remedy available to the accused.
Thus, a question arises when an accused appeals a judgment of conviction by the trial court that carries a penalty of more than six years imprisonment (which by express language of the law is beyond probationary limits) and the appellate court either affirms the decision of the lower court but reduces the penalty to less than six years or finds the accused guilty of a lower offense which provides for a term of imprisonment below the statutory limit.
Would the offender then be eligible to apply for probation?
The Court of Appeals in People of the Philippines v. Araceli Valenzuela held that the offender whose penalty has been reduced on appeal to within probationable limits can apply for probation in the court a quo after the remand of the records of the case.
In the above-entitled case, accused-appellant Araceli
PROBATION AFTER APPEAL
UNDER PHILIPPINE LAWS
Probation is a remedy which offenders must avail of at the first opportunity. As presently worded, the Probation Law requires that the application for probation must be filed within the period for perfecting an appeal. Thus, the filing of an appeal and an application for probation are mutually exclusive remedies, such that recourse to one necessarily bars resort to the other – as each will operate as an automatic waiver of the other.
Despite what appears to be the clear and categorical wording of Section 4 of the Probation Law that “no application for probation shall be entertained or granted if the defendant has perfected the appeal from the judgment of conviction,” the law itself is not at all that encompassing, plain and unambiguous such that there would be no further room for construction or interpretation. On the contrary, the provisions of the Probation Law do not address a situation wherein resort to probation is not obtainable at the time of the conviction by the trial court in view of the sentence imposed, thereby making appeal the only remedy available to the accused.
Thus, a question arises when an accused appeals a judgment of conviction by the trial court that carries a penalty of more than six years imprisonment (which by express language of the law is beyond probationary limits) and the appellate court either affirms the decision of the lower court but reduces the penalty to less than six years or finds the accused guilty of a lower offense which provides for a term of imprisonment below the statutory limit.
Would the offender then be eligible to apply for probation?
The Court of Appeals in People of the Philippines v. Araceli Valenzuela held that the offender whose penalty has been reduced on appeal to within probationable limits can apply for probation in the court a quo after the remand of the records of the case.
In the above-entitled case, accused-appellant Araceli