Penalty imposable in ESTAFA depends on amount defrauded

The penalty for estafa depends on the amount defrauded. The amount proved to have been defrauded in Criminal Case No. Q-93-51513 and Criminal Case No. Q-93-51514 was P50,000.00 in each case. Hence, the penalty prescribed above should be imposed in its maximum period. The maximum period thereof following the rule prescribed in the last paragraph of Article 77 of the Revised Penal Code ranges from six (6) years, eight (8) months and twenty-one (21) days to eight (8) years. We add to it two (2) years and nine (9) months for the amount beyond the first P22,000.00 (at the rate of one (1) year for every P10,000.00 and nine (9) months for the remaining P8,000.00 by ratio and proportion). Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the accused-appellant can be sentenced to an indeterminate penalty whose minimum shall be within the range of the penalty nest lower in degree than that prescribed by law, viz., prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods (six (6) months ad one (1) day to four (4) years and two (2) months) and whose maximum shall be the abovementioned imposable penalty. The indeterminate penalty can range, therefore, from two (2) years, eleven (11) months and ten (10) days of prision correccional, as minimum, to ten (10) years and nine (9) months of prision mayor, as maximum. In Criminal Case No. Q-93-51515, the amount proved to have been defrauded is only P85,000.00, as the receipt for the P10,000.00 is in the name of Shally Flor Gumarang, not the complainant Carlito Gumarang. The principal penalty imposable is likewise the maximum of the prescribed penalty provided for in Article 315 as stated in the immediately preceding paragraph, plus six (6) years and three (3) months for the amounts beyond the first P22,000.00 (at the rate of one (1) year for every additional P10,000.00 and three (3) months for the remaining P3,000.00). Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, and the foregoing disquisition, the accused-appellant can be sentenced to an indeterminate panalty ranging from four (4) years and two months of prision correccional, as minimum, to fourteen (14) years and three (3) months of reclusion temporal, as maximum. [G.R. No. 120389. November 21, 1996]