Question & AnswerQ&A (Act No. 2489)
The primary purpose of Act No. 2489 is to encourage industrial compensation, activity, and the earlier release from confinement of prisoners who have reformed, by authorizing special compensation, credits, and sentence modifications for exceptional conduct and workmanship.
Insular prisoners who are or become skilled and semiskilled workmen are eligible to receive compensation for their work under this Act.
The compensation shall not exceed the difference between the gross cost of the prisoner's maintenance and the amount that his services are reasonably worth, and all prisoners in the same conduct and workmanship classifications must receive like compensation.
At least 50% of the accumulated compensation is withheld until after the prisoner's final discharge, while the remainder may be disbursed upon the prisoner's request for support of dependents or approved personal use, with possible larger disbursements upon proof of necessity.
The Secretary of Public Instruction is tasked with promulgating suitable rules defining eligibility requirements, classifications, ratings, compensation amounts, payment methods, and forfeiture rules.
Prisoners classified as penal colonists or trusties may be credited with five days for each calendar month of exemplary work and conduct, in addition to regular good conduct time credits.
Their sentences of life imprisonment may be modified automatically to a term of thirty years upon receiving executive approval for the classification and earning the associated good conduct and special credits.
The prisoner will forfeit all special credits and sentence modifications authorized under the Act, in addition to any other punishments or forfeitures.
Yes, with executive approval and upon the Director of Prisons' recommendation, the benefits can apply to first-class workmen confined in Bilibid Prison who have earned certain privileges and classifications.
No, prisoners who have previously been convicted twice or more of any crime or misdemeanor are excluded from receiving benefits under the Act.
Yes, the Act is retroactive concerning prisoners who have the classification of penal colonists at the time of the Act's passage, authorizing benefits and credits from the date their classification was conferred.
The Act became effective on January 1, 1915.