Indeterminate Sentence and Parole Act

Section 2 states that the Act does not apply to persons convicted of offenses punished with death penalty or life imprisonment.
Section 2 excludes persons convicted of treason, conspiracy or proposal to commit treason, misprision of treason, sedition, or espionage.
Section 2 excludes persons convicted of piracy and those adjudged habitual delinquents.
Section 2 excludes those who have escaped from confinement or evasion of sentence, and those who, having been granted conditional pardon by the Chief Executive, violated the terms thereof.
Section 2 excludes those whose maximum term of imprisonment does not exceed one year.
Section 2 excludes persons already sentenced by final judgment at the time of approval of this Act, except as provided in Section 5.

Section 3 creates a Board of Indeterminate Sentence composed of the Secretary of Justice as chairman and four members appointed by the Governor-General with the advice and consent of the Philippine Senate.
Section 3 provides that the appointment of the initial members occurs upon this Act taking effect, and that members are thereafter appointed at the beginning of each Legislature.
Section 3 requires at least one Board member to be a trained sociologist, one to be a clergyman or educator, and one to be a psychiatrist unless a trained psychiatrist be employed by the Board.
Section 3 requires one more member (besides the identified categories) to be a person qualified by training or experience, and requires at least one member of the Board to be a woman.
Section 3 makes members subject to removal at the will of the Governor-General and allows appointment of a successor to serve only for the unexpired portion of the term in case of vacancy.

Section 4 directs the Board to adopt rules and regulations for its meetings and procedure.
Section 4 fixes member compensation at ten pesos for each meeting, with a cap of not exceeding one thousand pesos annually.
Section 4 provides that the compensation scheme applies notwithstanding section two hundred and fifty-nine of the Revised Administrative Code.
Section 4 allows members, in addition to compensation, to receive actual and necessary traveling expenses incurred in performing their duties.

Section 5 makes it the duty of the Board to examine the prisoners’ physical, mental, and moral record to determine the proper time of release on parole.
Section 5 provides that, when a prisoner has served the minimum penalty imposed, the Board may authorize parole in its discretion if it appears from prison work and conduct reports (as may be received under Board rules), and from the Board’s own study and investigation, that the prisoner:
- is fitted by his training for release;
- has a reasonable probability of living and remaining at liberty without violating the law; and
- release would not be incompatible with the welfare of society.
Section 5 requires parole to be granted upon terms and conditions prescribed by law/this Act and further prescribed by the Board under its adopted rules.
Section 5 requires the Board to also examine records and status of prisoners convicted of offenses other than those named in Section 2 and sentenced for more than one year by final judgment prior to the Act’s effectivity date, then recommend parole to the Governor-General for those it deems qualified.
Section 5 provides that such recommendations are made after the prisoner has served a period of imprisonment not less than the minimum period for which the prisoner might have been sentenced under this Act for the same offense.

Section 6 requires every prisoner released on parole to report personally to government officials or other parole officers designated by the Board for surveillance during the period equal to the remaining portion of the maximum sentence imposed or until final release and discharge by the Board.
Section 6 provides that designated officials must keep records, make reports, and perform other duties required by the Board.
Section 6 authorizes the Board to fix and, from time to time, change the limits of residence of the paroled prisoner during the parole period.
Section 6 provides that if the paroled prisoner shows himself to be a law-abiding citizen and does not violate any law of the Philippine Islands during surveillance, the Board may issue a final certificate of release entitling the prisoner to final release and discharge.

Section 7 requires the Board to file with the court which passed judgment and with the Chief of Constabulary a certified copy of each order of conditional or final release and discharge issued under Sections 5 and 6.

Section 8 provides that any prisoner released on parole who violates parole conditions or violates any law of the Philippine Islands during the surveillance period and is convicted by a competent court is subject to re-arrest and confinement.
Section 8 requires that, upon such violation and conviction, the prisoner serve the remaining unexpired portion of the maximum sentence originally committed for, unless the Board grants a new parole in its discretion.
Section 8 requires that, for implementing these provisions, the procedure in sections four and five of Act Numbered Fifteen hundred and twenty-four be followed as far as might be applicable.

Section 9 preserves the powers of the Governor-General under section sixty-four (i) of the Revised Administrative Code and under the Act of Congress approved August twenty-nine, nineteen hundred and sixteen entitled “An Act to declare the purpose of the people of the United States, as to the future political status of the people of the Philippine Islands, and to provide a more autonomous government for those Islands.”

Section 10 entitles every prisoner released on parole under this Act to receive the benefits provided in section one thousand seven hundred and fifty-one of the Revised Administrative Code.

Section 11 appropriates twenty-five thousand pesos out of any funds in the Insular Treasury, not otherwise appropriated, for carrying out this Act, to be disbursed by the Secretary of Justice.
Section 12 provides that this Act takes effect upon its approval.
The Act was approved on December 5, 1933.