6/9/2020 E-Library - Information At Your Fingertips: Printer Friendly latter sum, the penalty provided in this paragraph shall be imposed in its maximum period, adding one year for each additional 10,000 pesos; but the total penalty which may be imposed shall not exceed twenty years. In such cases, and in connection with the accessory penalties which may be imposed and for the purpose of the other provisions of this Code, the penalty shall be termed prision mayor or reclusion temporal, as the case may be. The prescribed penalty for estafa under Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code, when the amount of fraud is over P22,000.00, is prision correccional maximum to prision mayor minimum, adding one year to the maximum period for each additional P10,000.00, provided that the total penalty shall not exceed 20 years. Applying the Indeterminate Sentence Law, we take the minimum term from the penalty next lower than the minimum prescribed by law, or anywhere within prision correccional minimum and medium (i.e., from 6 months and 1 day to 4 years and 2 months).[33] Consequently, both the RTC and the Court of Appeals correctly fixed the minimum term in Criminal Case Nos. 16316-R and 16318-R at 2 years, 11 months, and 10 days of prision correccional; and in Criminal Case No. 16964-R at 4 years and 2 months of prision correccional, since these are within the range of prision correccional minimum and medium. As for the maximum term under the Indeterminate Sentence Law, we take the maximum period of the prescribed penalty, adding 1 year of imprisonment for every P10,000.00 in excess of P22,000.00, provided that the total penalty shall not exceed 20 years. To compute the maximum period of the prescribed penalty, the time included in prision correccional maximum to prision mayor minimum shall be divided into three equal portions, with each portion forming a period. Following this computation, the maximum period for prision correccional maximum to prision mayor minimum is from 6 years, 8 months, and 21 days to 8 years. The incremental penalty, when proper, shall thus be added to anywhere from 6 years, 8 months, and 21 days to 8 years, at the discretion of the court.[34] In computing the incremental penalty, the amount defrauded shall be substracted by P22,000.00, and the difference shall be divided by P10,000.00. Any fraction of a year shall be discarded as was done starting with People v. Pabalan.[35] In Criminal Case Nos. 16316-R and 16318-R, brothers Jeffries and Howard Golidan were each defrauded of the amount of P40,000.00, for which the Court of Appeals sentenced Ocden to an indeterminate penalty of 2 years, 11 months, and 10 days of prision correccional as minimum, to 9 years of prision mayor as maximum. Upon review, however, we modify the maximum term of the indeterminate penalty imposed on Ocden in said criminal cases. Since the amount defrauded exceeds P22,000.00 by P18,000.00, 1 year shall be added to the maximum period of the prescribed penalty (anywhere between 6 years, 8 months, and 21 days to 8 years). There being no aggravating circumstance, we apply the lowest of the maximum period, which is 6 years, 8 months, and 21 days. Adding the one year incremental penalty, the maximum term of Ocden's indeterminate sentence in these two cases is only 7 years, 8 months, elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocsfriendly/1/37842 16/19