xxx In People v. Gabres,25[25] where the amounts swindled ranged from P40,000 to P50,000, the Court said: Under the Indeterminate Sentence Law, the maximum term of the penalty shall be "that which, in view of the attending circumstances, could be properly imposed" under the Revised Penal Code, and the minimum shall be "within the range of the penalty next lower to that prescribed" for the offense. The penalty next lower should be based on the penalty prescribed by the Code for the offense, without first considering any modifying circumstance attendant to the commission of the crime. The determination of the minimum penalty is left by law to the sound discretion of the court and it can be anywhere within the range of the penalty next lower without any reference to the periods into which it might be subdivided. The modifying circumstances are considered only in the imposition of the maximum term of the indeterminate sentence. The fact that the amounts involved in the instant case exceed P22,000.00 should not be considered in the initial determination of the indeterminate penalty; instead, the matter should be so taken as analogous to modifying circumstances in the imposition of the maximum term of the full indeterminate sentence. This interpretation of the law accords with the rule that penal laws should be construed in favor of the accused. Since the penalty prescribed by law for the estafa charge against accused-appellant is prision correccional maximum to prision mayor minimum, the penalty next lower would be prision correccional minimum to medium. Thus, the minimum term of the indeterminate sentence should be anywhere within six (6) months and one (1) day to four (4) years and two (2) months while the maximum term of the indeterminate sentence should at least be six (6) years and one (1) day because the amounts involved exceeded P22,000.00 plus an additional one (1) year for each additional P10,000.00. Here, the amounts involved are P20,000.00 in Criminal Case No. 91-94196 and P30,000.00 each in Criminal Cases Nos. 91-94192, 91-94193, 91-94194, 91-94195 and 91-94197. The amounts in excess of the P22,000.00 as provided for in the first paragraph of Article 315 of the Revised Penal Code are less than P10,000.00, hence, do not warrant the imposition of an additional one-year imprisonment. There being no proven modifying circumstances, the correct penalty in each of the six (6) estafa cases should be the indeterminate penalty ranging from two (2) years and four (4) months of prision correccional as minimum to six (6) years and one (1) day of prision mayor as maximum. With respect to Criminal Case No. 91-94198, the trial court correctly imposed the penalty of life imprisonment and fine of P100,000.00. 25[25] 267 SCRA 581, 595-596. (1997)