The provision
ARTICLE 75. Increasing or reducing the penalty of fine by one or more degrees. - Whenever it may be necessary to increase or reduce the penalty of fine by one or more degrees, it shall be increased or reduced, respectively, for each degree, by one-fourth of the maximum amount prescribed by law, without, however, changing the minimum. The same rules shall be observed with regard to fines that do not consist of a fixed amount, but are made proportional.
Key points
Article 75 governs increasing or reducing the penalty of a fine by one or more degrees. For each degree, the fine is raised or lowered by one-fourth of the maximum amount prescribed by law, without changing the minimum; the same approach applies to fines that are proportional rather than fixed.
The provision adapts the degree-based graduation of penalties to fines. It is read with the general rules on the application and graduation of penalties in Articles 61 and following.
The rule lets a fine be graduated by degrees in the same way as imprisonment, which matters when mitigating or aggravating circumstances or the stage of execution call for raising or lowering the penalty. For each degree, one-fourth of the maximum is added or subtracted while the statutory minimum is preserved, and the same proportional method applies to fines that the law expresses as proportional rather than fixed. It operates together with the general rules on the application of penalties in Articles 61 and following.
Cases applying this article
- PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES v. JOMERITO S. SOLIMAN G.R. No. 256700