At the same time we cannot yield to petitioners

At the same time, we cannot yield to petitioner's submission that bail
in the instant case be set at P40,000.00 based on the 1996 Bail Bond
Guide. (The current Bail Bond Guide, issued on August 29, 2000,
maintains recommended bail at P40,000.00 for estafa where the
amount of fraud is P142,000.00 or over and the imposable penalty 20
years of reclusion temporal). True, the Court has held that the Bail
Bond Guide, a circular of the Department of Justice for the guidance of
state prosecutors, although technically not binding upon the courts,
"merits attention, being in a sense an expression of policy of the
Executive Branch, through the Department of Justice, in the
enforcement of criminal laws." 16 Thus, courts are advised that they
must not only be aware but should also consider the Bail Bond Guide
due to its significance in the administration of criminal justice. 17 This
notwithstanding, the Court is not precluded from imposing in
petitioner's case an amount higher than P40,000.00 (based on the Bail
Bond Guide) where it perceives that an appropriate increase is dictated
by the circumstances.
It militates emphasis that petitioner is seeking bail on appeal. Section
5, Rule 114 of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure is clear that
although the grant of bail on appeal is non-capital offenses is
discretionary, when the penalty imposed on the convicted accused
exceeds six years and circumstances exist that point to the probability
of flight if released on bail, then the accused must be denied bail, or
his bail previously granted should be cancelled. 18 In the same vein, the
Court has held that the discretion to extend bail during the course of
the appeal should be exercised with grave caution and for strong
reasons, considering that the accused had been in fact convicted by
the trial court.
19
In an earlier case, the Court adopted Senator Vicente J.
Francisco's disquisition on why bail should be denied after judgment of
conviction as a matter of wise discretion; thus:
The importance attached to conviction is due to the underlying
principle that bail should be granted only where it is uncertain
whether the accused is guilty or innocent, and therefore, where
that uncertainty is removed by conviction it would, generally
speaking, be absurd to admit to bail. After a person has been tried
and convicted the presumption of innocence which may be relied
upon in prior applications is rebutted, and the burden is upon the
accused to show error in the conviction. From another point of
view it may be properly argued that the probability of ultimate
punishment is so enhanced by the conviction that the accused is
much more likely to attempt to escape if liberated on bail than
before conviction.xxx 20

Petitioner is seeking bail on appeal. He was in fact declared guilty
beyond reasonable doubt by the RTC, and due to the serious amount of
fraud involved, sentenced to imprisonment for twenty years --the
maximum penalty for estafa by false pretenses or fraudulent acts
allowed by the Revised Penal Code. Although it cannot be controverted