CRIMINAL LAW BOOK 1
Art. 11 - Art. 15 (CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING CRIMINAL LIABILITY)
Justifying circumstances
Exempting circumstances
Mitigating circumstances
Aggravating circumstances
Alternative circumstances
JUSTIFYING CIRCUMSTANCES
1. 1.Self-defense
2. Defense of Relatives
3. Defense of Stranger
4. Avoidance of Greater Evil or Injury
5. Fulfillment of Duty or Exercise of Right or Office
6. Obedience to an Order of a Superior
EXEMPTING CIRCUMSTANCES
1. Imbecile or Insane Person
2. Person under Nine (9) Years of age
3. Person Over Nine (9) and Under 15 unless he has acted with discernment
4. Any person who, while performing a lawful act with due care, causes an injury by mere accident without
fault or intention of causing it.
5. Person who acts under the compulsion of an irresistible force
6. Person who acts under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of an equal or greater injury
7. Person who fails to perform an act required by law when prevented by some lawful or insuperable cause.
MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES
1. 1.Incomplete justifying and incomplete exempting circumstances
2. 2.Offender is under 18 years or over 70 years of age
3. 3.Offender had no intention to commit so grave a wrong as that committed
4. Sufficient provocation or threat on the part of the offended party
5. 5.Act was committed in the immediate vindication of a grave offense
6. Passion or obfuscation
7. Voluntary surrender
8. Deaf and dumb, blind in two eyes or suffering from physical defect
9. Illness that diminishes the exercise of will power
10. Other circumstance of a similar nature
AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES
1. 1.Advantage be taken by the offender of his public position
2. Crime be committed in contempt of or with insult to public authorities
3. Act be committed
a) with insult or disregard of the respect due to the offended party on account of his rank
b) Committed in the dwelling of the offended party
4. Abuse of confidence or obvious ungratefulness
5. Crime committed in the palace of the Chief Executive
6. Nighttime, Uninhabited place or a band
7. On the occasion of conflagration, shipwreck, earthquake, epidemic or other calamity or misfortune
8. With the aid of armed men
9. Accused a recidivist
10. Reiteracion
11. 11.In consideration of a price or promise
12. Inundation, fire, poison, explosion, stranding of a vessel or intentional damage, derailment of a locomotive
or use of other artifice involving great waste and ruin
13. Evident premeditation
14. Craft, fraud or disguise be employed
15. 15.Advantage of Superior strength or means employed to weaken the defense
16. Treachery
17. Ignominy
18. Unlawful entry
19. Forcible Entry
20. Aid of persons under 15 years of age by means of motor vehicles, airships or other similar means
21. Cruelty
ALTERNATIVE CIRCUMSTANCES
1. Relationship
2. Intoxication
3. Degree of Instruction
4. Education
Art. 17 - Art. 19
PERSONS CRIMINALLY LIABLE
1. Principals
2. Accomplices
3. Accessories
Art. 48
TWO KINDS OF COMPLEX CRIME
1. Compound Crime-when a single act constitutes two or more grave of Less grave felonies
2. Complex Crime- Proper when an offense is a necessary means for committing the other
SPECIAL COMPLEX CRIME- a single crime consisting of a series of acts arising from one criminal resolution
or
intent not susceptible of division
Art. 89
EXTINCTION OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY
1. Death of convict
2. Service of sentence
3. Amnesty
4. Absolute Pardon
5. Prescription of the crime
6. Prescription of the penalty
7. Marriage of the offended woman
Art. 89
Prescription of Crime- It is the forfeiture or loss of the right of the State to prosecute of the offender or file
criminal action after the lapse of a certain period
Reclusion Perpetua or reclusion temporal
Prescribe in 20 years
Other afflictive penalties
Prescribe in 15 years
Correctional penalty
Prescribe in 10 years
Arresto mayor
Prescribe in 5 years
Grave Oral defamation and grave slander
Prescribe in 6 months
Light offenses
Prescribe in 2 months
Criminal law
BOOK 1
Art.1. Time When Act Takes Effect
Criminal law is that branch or division of municipal law which
- defines crimes,
- treats of their nature and
- provides for their punishment.
Characteristics of Criminal Law:
1. General – binding on all persons who reside or sojourn in the Philippines
Exceptions:
a. Treaty Stipulation
b. Laws of Preferential Application
c. Principles of Public International Law
Example
(1). sovereigns and other chiefs of state
(2). Ambassadors, minister’s plenipotentiary, minister resident and charges d’affaires (BUT consuls, vice-consuls
and other foreign commercial representatives CANNOT claim the privileges and immunities accorded to
ambassadors and ministers.)
2. Territorial – penal laws of the Philippines are enforceable only within its territory
Exceptions: (Art. 2 of RPC – binding even on crimes committed outside the Philippines)
a. offense committed while on a Philippine ship or airship
b. forging or counterfeiting any coin or currency note of the Philippines or obligations and the securities
issued by the Government
c. introduction into the country of the above-mentioned obligations and securities
d. while being public officers and employees, an offense committed in the exercise of their functions
e. crimes against national security and the law of the nations defined in Title One of Book Two
3. Prospective – the law does not have any retroactive effect.
Exception: when the law is favorable to the accused
Exceptions to the Exception:
The new law is expressly made inapplicable to pending actions or existing causes of action
b. Offender is a habitual criminal
Theories of Criminal Law:
1. Classical Theory – basis is man’s free will to choose between good and evil, that is why more stress is placed
upon the result of the felonious act than upon the criminal himself. The purpose of penalty is retribution. The RPC
is generally governed by this theory.
2. Positivist Theory – basis is the sum of social and economic phenomena which conditions man to do wrong in
spite of or contrary to his volition. This is exemplified in the provisions on impossible crimes and habitual
delinquency.
3. Mixed Theory – combination of the classical and positivist theories wherein crimes that are economic and
social in nature should be dealt in a positive manner. The law is thus more compassionate.
Construction of Penal Laws:
1. Liberally construed in favor of offender
Ex:
a. the offender must clearly fall within the terms of the law
b. an act is criminal only when made so by the statute
2. In cases of conflict with official translation, original Spanish text is controlling,
3. No interpretation by analogy.
LIMITATIONS ON POWER OF CONGRESS TO ENACT PENAL LAWS
1. ex post facto law
2. bill of attainder
3. law that violates the equal protection clause of the constitution
4. law which imposes cruel and unusual punishments nor excessive fines
R.A. No. 75 - penalizes acts which would impair the proper observance by the Republic and inhabitants of the
Philippines of the immunities, rights, and privileges of duly accredited
foreign diplomatic representatives in the Philippines
