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Tuesday, October 07, 2003
Prison for issuing bouncing checks
By Jessica B. Natad
THE cliché “Walay mapriso sa utang” (no one goes to prison because of debt) is false.
According to lawyer Antonio Viray, debtors who issue bouncing checks or bad checks can be sent to prison, as stipulated in Section One of Batas Pambansa (BP) 22 or the bouncing checks law.
Viray said there are two acts or crimes punishable under Section One of BP 22. These are the crime of commission and the crime of omission.
He said the crime of commission is committed when the person issuing a check knows at the time of issuance that he does not have sufficient funds.
The crime of omission, on the other hand, is committed when the person, who may have sufficient funds with the drawee bank during the time he issues the check, fails to keep sufficient funds to cover the check within a period of 90 days from the date appearing on the check.
Viray said 90 days is the reasonable term for the payee to present the check to the bank. If the check is presented beyond the period, the person who issues the check is relieved of any criminal liability.
Punishment
The punishment is imprisonment of not less than 30 days but not more than one year or a fine of not more than double the amount of the check,” a document furnished Sun.Star said.
The issue of the validity of BP 22 has already been settled by the Supreme Court, Viray told bankers in a seminar by the Bankers Institute of the Philippines (Baiphil)-Cebu chapter at the Holiday Plaza Hotel last week.
The law had been challenged by critics, saying the “imprisonment for non-payment of debt” violates the Philippine Constitution, he said.
“But according to the Supreme Court, the gravamen (essential part of a complaint) of the offense punished by BP 22 is the act of making and issuing a worthless check or a check that is dishonored upon its presentation for payment. It is not the non-payment of an obligation, which the law punishes.
No coercion
“The law is not designed to coerce a debtor to pay his debt. The thrust of the law is to prohibit, under pain of penal sanctions, the making of worthless checks and putting them in circulation.
The law punishes that act not as an offense against property, but an offense against public order,” he said.
BP 22 covers all kinds of checks such as present dated or postdated checks, crossed checks or restricted checks, and checks issued in payment of existing obligations or given in mutual or simultaneous exchange for something of value.
(October 7, 2003 issue)
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