Factors Affecting the Capability of Offender to Post Bail in The Province of Sorsogon, Philippines: An Assessment

Many factors affect the capability of the offenders to post and avail the privilege of acquiring temporary liberty. In this study, the researcher aimed to identify the major factors that greatly affect the opportunity for offenders to post bail in the province of Sorsogon (Philippines). Using the descriptive research method and its instruments, the researcher meticulously gets the response of each of the respondents, which will be the basis for computing the data needed for the study. The responses reflect that the capability of the offenders to post for bail is clearly affected due to financial disability, and this is one of the major problems of every offender in availing temporary liberty in the province of Sorsogon. As part of the objectives of this study, the researcher formulated a proposal for the proper fixing of bail to ease for some time the burden that the offenders would always encounter.

after determining the probable cause, the accused is held in custody for trial but subject to the grant of bail if he is qualified. This will determine whether they can afford the fixed bail amount.

offender/accused/defendant -someone who has violated a criminal, religious or moral law.
Their capability to post for bail after being taken into custody is the primary purpose of this research study.
5. temporary liberty -bail secures the release of a person from jail, provided that he or she will return for court appearances or trial. The bail will be forfeited if the suspect fails to return to court. it will only be returned if the suspect is able to comply with the required appearances. Regardless of whether the person is found guilty or not guilty, the bail money will be returned at the end of the trial.

Scope and Delimitations
As to the inclusion, this research is limited to the exclusive jurisdiction of the province of Sorsogon as it is the home province of the researcher, and it also has enough respondents to furnish data for the better result of this research study. The researcher collected data from the Provincial "Bulwagan ng Katarungan" or the Hall of Justice, this hall is where trial court hearings are being held. The collection of data also includes members of Lawyers (Public and Private Lawyers), Prosecutors, Members of the Philippine National Police (PNP), and previous Offenders. The research was conducted immediately after the researcher furnished instruments (such as survey questionnaires) for data gathering.
As to the exclusion of the study, it is not extended to the provinces outside the boundary jurisdiction of Sorsogon (i.e. Albay and Camarines Sur). Also, judges and other higher officials such as Mayors, Governors and Chief of police are not covered as respondents of this study because it might be inconvenient to gather data from them due to their busy schedules.

Study Site
This study is exclusively conducted in Sorsogon (Region V, figure 1), Philippines. Sorsogon, officially the Province of Sorsogon, is a province in the Philippines located in the Bicol Region with an average population as of the 2020 census 828,655 (Province, 2020). It is the southernmost province in Luzon and is subdivided into fourteen municipalities (towns) and one city. Said province is the place where the researcher collected the data from the set of respondents. The data was specifically collected at the Hall of Justice, where lawyers (private and public) at the Regional Trial Court Level are requested to answer the survey questionnaires as well as the members of the Philippine National Police assigned at Sorsogon City Police offices and the previous offenders with an experience of applying for bail. ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023

Theoretical Framework
This study has been linked to different theories of crime in the study of criminology: "Justice as Fairness Theory: Political Not Metaphysical" and "Social Contract Theory." These theories should be used as a link to the researcher's topic since it is a needed criteria on how different factors affect the capability of the offenders to apply for bail.
The first theory is the Justice as Fairness Theory: Political, not Metaphysical, by Rawls (1985). Rawls dictates that society should be structured so that the greatest possible amount of liberty is given to its members, limited only by the notion that the liberty of any one member shall not infringe upon that of any other member. With this, liberty should always be observed even if a person previously suffered deprivation of liberty due to his criminal act. So, the right to bail is another point of this theory as in the case of applying for temporary liberty. To observe fairness and justice during the prosecution of an offense, there should be a balance between the rights of the accused and the rights of the victim; the right of the accused to avail temporary liberty after having been qualified for bail, and the right of the victim to confer with himself with the pleadings made by the accused. This theory of Rawls best fit this research topic in determining the factors that has a major effect on why the offenders are unable to post bail for their temporary liberty.
Another is the Social Contract Theory of Hobbes (2002), this theory best fits the researcher's topic due to the massive application of bail and its limitations. According to Hobbes, human life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short", in the absence of law, people would do anything they want, be it right or wrong, including the "right to all things" they want to access. Hobbes theorized that the absence of the social contract would be chaos for all, "a war of all against all." This theory is anchored to the right of bail guaranteed by the state for the defendants. As the principle of this theory, the state Journal of Advances in Humanities Research ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 United Frontiers Publisher 39 limits the liberty as a right of the accused in exchange for the wrong they committed; but the state should also limit their police power not to fully cover the deprivation of liberty of the accused to the point that it is now unable to post for bail. Those incarcerations that exist due to the excessive necessity of controlling the criminal act and protecting society can only be considered "Just" (Duker, 1977).
Therefore, those incarcerations involving a slight reason are considered harsh and not just. It is particularly if the defendant cannot avail his temporary liberty due to the reason of poverty and the excessive fixing of bail.

Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework shows the style of this study. This serves as the organizer of the idea based on a research topic. Figure 2 presents the scope of the study as drawn in the research framework.
This topic serves as an eye-opener to the readers and practitioners of the justice system on how they will adequately discharge their duties, particularly in assisting offenders in their application for bail. As observed, after being qualified for bail, the defendants cannot avail due to some compelling reasons. Effects of incarceration will be weeks, months or sometimes it takes years for them to spend their lives as incarcerated individuals, seriously affecting their lives, family responsibilities and daily routines (Olderman, 2012). The capability of the offenders to post bail will be the main purpose of this study as it tried to take data from different respondents just to determine why they are not fully able to cover their temporary liberties. Also, it will serve as an aid on the part of the community on how they will now determine why some offenders are still incarcerated even though they are qualified for bail.
All in all, this research study will focus on those factors regarding the capability of offenders to avail their temporary liberties under bail and the other factors on how the judge fixes and make conditions for their application on bail. This will form part of the determination of the capability of the defendants and the way the judge fixed the amount of bail in cases of cash bond; it is not sometimes the factor of poverty, but it is also a matter of how the judge fixed the amount of bail and the basis should be the social status of the defendant. Poverty is common and already identified as part of the factor. The other factor is also determinable, where judges impose excessive amounts of bail not afforded by the defendants and choose to stay in jail for incarceration (Wiseman, 2016). Judges, families of the defendants, the defendants itself and also the Community are the expected beneficiaries of this research study for them to have a good picture of what was the major reason why some defendants necessitate of choosing incarceration rather than availing their temporary liberties. Just in the case of Loretta Starvus Stack and her eleven (11) co-defendants after having been arrested for the crime of overthrowing the federal state of U.S during World War II (Carlson, 2011). Their case was bailable, and they can post their temporary liberties, but for some compelling reasons; despite that there are rulings on how to fix bail for the guarantee of their appearance in court, judge/s fixed different amounts of bails for each of the defendants where it is not under the provision of procedural law that time. Judges encroached on their powers to fix bail after posting a different bond because the offenders have the same gravity of the offense and the same social standing (Carlson, 2011). In this situation, the moment that judges give an excessive amount of bail should always be a great concern to include this as one of Journal of Advances in Humanities Research ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 United Frontiers Publisher 41 the major reasons why there are relatively pre-trial incarcerations. This would be the concern of this research topic aimed to determine the factor between poverty and abuse of discretion.

METHODOLOGY
In identifying the factors affecting the capability of the offenders to post bail, the researcher used quantitative research to use survey questionnaires to gather data from the respective respondents for proper interpretation. Quantitative research is the process of collecting and analyzing numerical data. Using this research method, the researcher could easily look for the major factors why there might be some considerable obstacles in applying for bail for their temporary liberty. As mentioned earlier in the preceding sections, the research aimed to conduct in the province of Sorsogon (Philippines) as it is a perfect place to search for different sets of ideas from the respondents to suit the need of this research work. Second, Sorsogon province is also a populated place composed of numerous indigenous groups of families, which is a good spot for this research work.
Using descriptive research design, the flow of this study will be guided according to its objective's greatest aim to accurately and systematically describe the exact conditions of a phenomenon or situation (McCombs & Valenzuela, 2020). The data was expected to collect from different sets of respondents, such as Lawyers, Police and Convicts, a total of 30 respondents. The researcher is confident that they were enough in order to have a better result for the research problem. Using a research instrument (e.g., a Survey questionnaire), the researcher collected the data using English and Native (Tagalog/Bicolano) language at the earliest possible time and subject for computation and then interpretation. The collected data was the major concern by deducing it into computation using the weighted mean formula and the Likert scale. This was the basis for formulating conclusions and recommendations and ranging into the final major output of this research work.
Due to some restrictions of face-to-face contact, the researcher decided to gather data through the use of online communication like messenger, Facebook and electronic mail; a total of 30 survey questionnaires were sent to the respective respondents and all of these questionnaires have been retrieved by the researcher. As to the success rate of gathering data, a total of 99% success rate were noted as all of the questionnaires were sent back to the researcher.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Arellano (2000) Where we can access the bail rulings here in the Philippines. It states that offenders who committed a crime punishable by not more than six years are qualified to apply for bail.
Those offenders with a penalty of more than six years may also apply for bail provided that it does not reach the maximum penalty, Reclusion Perpetua to Death penalty, and the evidence of their guilt is not strong. Tolentino (2007) Examines the capability of offenders to post bail in the Philippines. The author found that even a small sum of bail amounting to five thousand pesos is a hard ground to avail by the Journal of Advances in Humanities Research ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 United Frontiers Publisher 43 hapless and poor offenders and evidenced that poverty and financial disability hampers the opportunity for the offenders to avail temporary liberty. Caparas (1999) study the so-called double standard of justice that grinds between the rich and the poor in the Philippines. The author tried to study the country's justice system in terms of bail, convictions and arrest of different individuals. He looks for discrimination among the poor and the type of justice system between rich and poor.
The study of Stewart (2022), focuses on the capabilities of the offenders to post for bail, as scholars now rarely conduct a study about this. The author argues that the problems in availing temporary liberty are not only the subjective condition of the offenders but also the condition where the authorities add some disparities to them. This study was also supported by the research of Sebastian and Karakatsanis (2018), where they find it hard for the defendants of America to sleep at night in government custody after having failed to meet the desired amount of bail.
Yule and Schumann (2019)  We all know that the significance of bail is to secure the appearance of the offenders in court trials, and it offers a valuable impact not only to secure their attendance during hearings but also to still discharge their duties as a member of the family and community (Antolak-Saper, 2017). York's County Jail. They found out that most inmates suffered unnecessary and excessive amounts of bail, which hampers the opportunity to avail the of temporary liberty. This study relates with this research output in so far as "factors affecting the capability to post bail" is concerned. Nejdl (2017), made an effort to determine the conditions of the bail system in the particular justice system and how they fix bail according to the defendants' ability. The necessity between pleading guilty and availing temporary liberty is alarming for the offenders. When they do not meet the desired bail amount, they push to plead guilty to avail the liberty they wish. : 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 United Frontiers Publisher 44 Kupper (2018), studies the bail condition in Cook County Jail. The rampancy of unnecessary fixing of bail in the said place needs critical revisions as the constitution once said that it violates the right of an accused to be presumed innocent. The ultimate reason for the failure of defendants to post bail is poverty, where the latter choose the necessity of accepting the court's decision against their own favor. Here in the Philippines, the poverty rate is relatively high capable of disarming a specific offender to post his/her temporary liberty (Schelzig, 2005).

Journal of Advances in Humanities
The study of Hawk and Director (2016) supported the other literature when they looked at the capabilities of the offender to post bail. They titled their output as "no money, no freedom." The title explains the problem that necessitates the increase in incarceration among nations. This will cause relative desperation, stress, and depression on the part of the incarcerated individual, as well as the effect of this to their families (Page, 2017).
Albright (2021) also conducted a similar study on bail, finding that money bail is almost always a huge deal for temporary liberty. He argued that bail is one of the solutions to jail overcrowding; hence, in some cases, it triggers jail overcrowding also. The best counter for this social phenomenon is the revision and looking for alternatives on how cash bail will be replaced aside (Baudry, 2022). In the Philippine context, particularly here in the province of Sorsogon, the capabilities of the offenders to post for bail is sometimes blocked by the circumstances such as poverty and disparities. This necessitates disarming them to get their rights to bail and avail temporary liberty.

Sampling Techniques and Statistical Treatment
In choosing respondents for this study, the researcher used the Non-Probability Sampling Method, getting the feature of Purposive Sampling. In this sampling technique, the researcher chose the respondents with high qualifications to suit their responses in this research study.
The researcher used the five-point scale (Likert Scale) to measure the respondents' responses in the data computation. They are interpreted as follows: Journal of Advances in Humanities Research ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 United Frontiers Publisher 45 To get the result from the collected data, the researcher used the weighted mean formula (below) to determine the central tendency, which is the basis of the interpretation of data.

RESULTS, INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS
This part presents the significant findings found in the study. This study determined the factors affecting the capability of the defendants to post for their temporary liberty, which is based on the responses of the identified group of respondents. It is the result of the data-gathering procedures conducted by the researcher. It includes explanations of the results inside the tables and the implications to the beneficiaries. This also includes the profiles of the respondents. Below are the table representing the computed data with discussions. ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 United Frontiers Publisher 46 They are the identified respondents that the researcher asked for their views regarding the Factors affecting the capability of the offenders to post for bail.  ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 United Frontiers Publisher 47

Journal of Advances in Humanities Research
The table above explains the significant increase in the factor of financial disability on the part of the defendant which seems to be the major factor that affects their capability to post bail. It has an average weighted mean of 4.6, meaning the respondents significantly agreed to answer the factor number 1, which is considered as a leading factor that affects the capabilities of the defendants to post for their temporary liberties. In the study of (Jones, 2013), she argued that the existence of disparity is another reason for the unequal fixing of bail due to the lack of uniformity, resources, and information provided to officials in bail proceedings. This was also supported by the studies of Stevenson and Mayson (2017) who also said that the unbalanced reform on bail causes jail overcrowding and disparities. Financial disability may be the contributing factor that hamper the harmony of the right to bail provided in the constitutional right of an accused and the trial court must always observe the better interest to grant this right. This will be the weapon against untoward abuse of deprivation of liberty after having been qualified to post bail due to some circumstances (Collins, 1980). This factor is always at hand every time during criminal proceedings, that the respondents are unable to fully cover the exact amount of bail in exchange for their temporary liberty (Sebastian & Karakatsanis, 2018).
Another factor is the excessive amount of bail, having an average mean of 3.3. As observed, the respondents have their understanding that a large amount of bail fixed by the judge discriminately prevents them from availing bail bonds. In the study of Bibby (2014), one of the most essential parts of a judge's decision is the part where the bail is to be fixed. The problems of jail overcrowding increase due to the increasing number of detainees which fail to meet the amount in exchange for their temporary liberty (Wiseman, 2016). Disparity existed beneath these factors, even the actors of the criminal justice system tried their best to prevent inequalities, but the situation of financial disabilities and an excessive amount of bail dictated and precipitated the manifestation of disparity and inequality.
Other factors such as the offender's mental health, and racial, religious and ethnic matters, including those charged with non-bailable offenses are really not the factors affecting the capability of the offenders to post for bail. The respondents showed their opinions based on answering the questionnaire that these factors are not in the same manner as the first and second questions. ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 Table 4 shows the result of the computed data on the problems encountered by the offenders in posting for their temporary liberties. Data revealed that the dismissal of the application for bail is another problem and got the highest average mean of 3.5. The study of Arnold et al. (2018), found that the prevalence of incidence of denying offenders to post for bail is because of racial inequalities when they conducted a study between white and black somewhere in the United States. This means that despite the capabilities of the offenders to post for bail, the problem of indiscriminate dismissal of the petition for bail prevents the opportunity of the defendant to avail his/her statutory right. Whereas, minorities who cannot avail of the desired amount of bail fixed by the jurist will be pushed to plead guilty and suffer longer incarcerations (Donnelly & MacDonald, 2018).

Journal of Advances in Humanities Research
Another serious problem is that the high interest of surety bonds scored 3.1. Though not at the same level as the first factor, but this is another problem as it relates to the financial disability of some defendants. This removes the opportunity for the defendants to post for their temporary liberty as surety bond is not a traditional process in posting bail (O'Rourke & Carter, 1969).
Another problem is the deficiency of the offender's knowledge about the details of bail and how it is granted. As observed, the respondents said that another serious problem is ignorance on the part of the defendants; their lawyers will not fully cover to explain the concept of bail better, especially if they Journal of Advances in Humanities Research ISSN: 2948-4863 Vol. 2, No.3, 2023 are unable to hire competent and well-experienced counsel. However, the other problem, which is the failure to file a motion for bail and the court's confused jurisdiction for filing bail, is less serious. It was observed in the findings that there is no great factor to label this as a problem that hinders the accused in filing for bail (Ebbesen & Konecni, 1975).

CONCLUSIONS
The researcher concludes that the main factor that affects the capability of the offender to post for bail is the financial problem; this is so because, according to the responses of the respondents, bail amount is excessive which seem to be impossible for the poor defendants to avail. Another factor is the gravity of their offenses where laws related to bail disqualifies offender from applying their temporary liberty.
The researcher also realized that the disparity between the rich and the poor are prevalent, where the poor defendants are experiencing difficulty in applying for bail compared to the rich one, on the other hand, some would say that there are no bias in the administration of justice but the extent of poverty is sometimes an obstacle to enjoying justice.

Recommendations
1. Judges of the court must fix the desired amount of bail, which is affordable for the accused in cases of cash bond.
2. The evidence of guilt should first be established before the denying of bail; especially in cases of capital offense but seem to be qualified for bail.
3. Judges must establish a proper criterion on how they will fix the bail depending upon the offender's financial status.
4. Members of the court pillar must study and adopt the researcher's proposal, as seen in the table below, based on the identified findings of the study.
Bail as a matter of right and privilege, was granted to the defendants after being qualified for their temporary liberty. But in some instances, judges of convicting courts fixed it in an amount that for the offenders are impossible to meet due to some monetary reasons (Luna, 2017).
Major causes of jail overcrowding are sometimes the prolonged pre-trial detention durations; this is because the offenders under trial are unable to post for bail, without a choice but to stay inside jail or prison (Narag, 2018).

Criteria for Fixing
Objectives Process Persons Involve 1. Offenses qualified for bail but the offender is unable to cover the amount.
-To grant the desired amount of bail commensurate with the capability of the offender to pay the desired amount.
-Assessment on the societal status of the offender to fix the desired amount of bail.
-To regulate the amount of bail desirable for the temporary release of the offender.
-In case the offender is fully unable to pay the amount of bail, release him on recognizance will be the other choice.
-To reduce the amount of bail and should be patterned from the financial status of the petitioner.
-The judge in fixing bail have their own leniency if the offense does not heavier capable to disqualify the offender.

-Judge
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Data availability:
The data was collected at the respondents with utmost confidentiality. These are available depending upon the request by the concerned party subject for the approval by the researcher to secure confidentiality. Ethical Statement: In the conduct of this study, the researcher prepared corresponding letters to seek for the consent of their offices to gather data and to make their personnel as respondents. They positively replied and consented to the study while ensuring their responses' confidentiality. Consent to Participate: This research is conducted by one author for purpose of compliance to the PhD program. This is conducted without any bias and/or prejudice on the part of the participants as it only assesses the sociological conflict happened in the in the province of Sorsogon, Philippines.
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