Tito Sotto wants lying under oath punishable by up to 10 years

Senate President Vicente Sotto III has filed a bill seeking imprisonment of up to 10 years for those who will be found guilty of perjury or making false testimonies under oath.

Sotto's bill seeks to amend the Revised Penal Code to increase the punishment for perjury from current six months to two years.

"This will serve as a deterrent to suspects who retracts testimonies to get off sticky situations. Perjury is an act which undermines the solemnity of the oath that one has taken to ‘tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth’,” Sotto said.

“A lot of people – prominent or otherwise – would subsequently and without batting an eyelash change their stories made under oath like it was not a big deal. This may be partly due to the existing short jail term for the crime of perjury,” he added.

Sotto said the Philippines could take the cue from the state of California in the United States, which considered perjury as a capital offense; and Queensland in  Australia where making false testimonies was punishable by up to life imprisonment.

“We must not allow anyone to play games with our laws. Instead, we should ensure that our laws are respected at all times,” Sotto said. —NB, GMA News