Miriam seeks stiffer penalties for grave robbers

11/01/2009

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has set in motion a bill seeking to add a new provision to the Revised Penal Code defining and penalizing the robbery of cemetery items or the ones committed in cemeteries, graveyards or burial grounds.

Santiago’s Senate Bill 2937 defines grave robbery as “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 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.

Also known as the proposed Anti-Grave Robbers Act, Santiago’s bill also increases the penalty of grave robbers depending on the value of the property taken and the location of the grave or burial ground. The minimum penalty for grave robbery is 6 years and one day to 12 years, while the maximum penalty imposed shall be 20 years and one day to 40 years.

“For 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.

Santiago’s bill came on the heels of recent reports on widespread desecration of graves as well as robberies in many burial grounds. A recent TV documentary even showed skulls and bones of the dead scattered all over an alley in one cemetery in Antipolo City. The same documentary also showed the desecration of graves on a condominum-styled structure in yet another public cemetery, with some remains protruding out of the graves.

Her bill also seems to highlight part of the country’s housing problem as squatters have been observed to have dwelt in many public cemeteries in Metro Manila.

Police authorities have noted that some those who use the cemeteries as their dwelling place are people with criminal record. According to them, these squatters were likely the ones who desecrate the graves in order to steal items of value from the dead.

Two years ago, the Manila city government intensified its campaign against informal settlers in Manila North cemetery. The city police rounded up scores of informal dwellers and booked them for squatting and other petty crimes.

Many of those who live inside the cemeteries and put up shanties on the graves do odd jobs days before the commemoration of the dead. They cut grass around the graves, scrub and repaint graves and even maintain some of these throughout the yea – all for a fee.

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