DON CARLOS POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

Criminology Department

Criminal Law, Book 1 (Basic principles of felonies and circumstances affecting

criminal liability)

Introduction

The Revised Penal Code contains the general penal laws of the Philippines.
First enacted in 1930, it remains in effect today, despite several amendments
thereto. It does not comprise a comprehensive compendium of all Philippine penal
laws. The Revised Penal Code itself was enacted as Act No. 3815, and some
Philippine criminal laws have been enacted outside of the Revised Penal Code as
separate Republic Acts.

The Revised Penal Code consist of two books, namely: (1) Book One, and (2)
Book two. Book One provides for the basic principles of felonies and circumstances
affecting criminal liability, and the provisions on penalties including criminal and civil
liability; while Book Two are defined felonies with the corresponding penalties.

Rationale

As future law enforcers and public safety officers, the study of Book 1 of the
Revised Penal Code will provide the students with the fundamental knowledge of
the basic principles affecting criminal liability, and the provisions on penalties
including criminal and civil liability.

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of the lesson, students will be able to:

1. learn the basic principles of felonies and circumstances affecting criminal

liability;
2. Know and understand the provisions on penalties; and
3. Determine the applicable criminal and civil liability.

Discussion

Law is defined as a rule of conduct, just and obligatory. Promulgated by

legitimate authority for common observance and benefit.

Criminal Law is that branch or division of law which defines crimes, treats of
their nature, and provides for their punishment.
 Crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of a public law forbidding or
commanding it.

Penalty is intended to condemn the person or entity who receives it, designating
the penalized recipient as a wrong doer, not only to encourage remorse and to
discourage the wrongdoer from repetition of the wrongful act, but also to serve as an
example to others to discourage such actions to them.

ACT No. 3815 (December 8, 1930)

AN ACT REVISING THE PENAL CODE AND OTHER PENAL LAWS

Preliminary Article - This law shall be known as "The Revised Penal Code."

BOOK ONE

GENERAL PROVISIONS REGARDING THE DATE OF ENFORCEMENT AND

APPLICATION OF THE PROVISIONS OF THIS CODE, AND REGARDING THE
OFFENSES, THE PERSONS LIABLE AND THE PENALTIES

Preliminary Title

DATE OF EFFECTIVENESS AND APPLICATION OF THE PROVISIONS OF THIS

CODE

Article 1. Time when Act takes effect. - This Code shall take effect on the first day
of January, nineteen hundred and thirty-two.

Article 2. Application of its provisions. - Except as provided in the treaties and laws
of preferential application, the provisions of this Code shall be enforced not only
within the Philippine Archipelago, including its atmosphere, its interior waters and
maritime zone, but also outside of its jurisdiction, against those who:

1. Should commit an offense while on a Philippine ship or airship

2. Should forge or counterfeit any coin or currency note of the Philippine

Islands or obligations and securities issued by the Government of the
Philippine Islands;

3. Should be liable for acts connected with the introduction into these islands
of the obligations and securities mentioned in the presiding number;

4. While being public officers or employees, should commit an offense in the

exercise of their functions; or

5. Should commit any of the crimes against national security and the law of
nations, defined in Title One of Book Two of this Code.
Title One

FELONIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH AFFECT CRIMINAL LIABILITY

Chapter One
FELONIES

Article 3. Definitions. - Acts and omissions punishable by law are felonies (delitos).

Felonies are committed not only be means of deceit (dolo) but also by means of fault
(culpa).

There is deceit when the act is performed with deliberate intent and there is fault
when the wrongful act results from imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight, or lack
of skill.

Article 4. Criminal liability. - Criminal liability shall be incurred:

1. By any person committing a felony (delito) although the wrongful act done
be different from that which he intended.

2. By any person performing an act which would be an offense against

persons or property, were it not for the inherent impossibility of its
accomplishment or an account of the employment of inadequate or
ineffectual means.

Article 5. Duty of the court in connection with acts which should be repressed but
which are not covered by the law, and in cases of excessive penalties. - Whenever
a court has knowledge of any act which it may deem proper to repress and which is
not punishable by law, it shall render the proper decision, and shall report to the Chief
Executive, through the Department of Justice, the reasons which induce the court to
believe that said act should be made the subject of legislation.

In the same way, the court shall submit to the Chief Executive, through the
Department of Justice, such statement as may be deemed proper, without
suspending the execution of the sentence, when a strict enforcement of the
provisions of this Code would result in the imposition of a clearly excessive penalty,
taking into consideration the degree of malice and the injury caused by the offense.

Article 6. Consummated, frustrated, and attempted felonies. - Consummated

felonies as well as those which are frustrated and attempted, are punishable.

A felony is consummated when all the elements necessary for its execution and
accomplishment are present; and it is frustrated when the offender performs all the
acts of execution which would produce the felony as a consequence but which,
nevertheless, do not produce it by reason of causes independent of the will of the
perpetrator.

There is an attempt when the offender commences the commission of a felony

directly or over acts, and does not perform all the acts of execution which should
produce the felony by reason of some cause or accident other than this own
spontaneous desistance.
Article 7. When light felonies are punishable. - Light felonies are punishable only
when they have been consummated, with the exception of those committed against
person or property.

Article 8. Conspiracy and proposal to commit felony. - Conspiracy and proposal to

commit felony are punishable only in the cases in which the law specially provides a
penalty therefor.

A conspiracy exists when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning

the commission of a felony and decide to commit it.

There is proposal when the person who has decided to commit a felony proposes its
execution to some other person or persons.

Article 9. Grave felonies, less grave felonies and light felonies. - Grave felonies are
those to which the law attaches the capital punishment or penalties which in any of
their periods are afflictive, in accordance with Art. 25 of this Code.

Less grave felonies are those which the law punishes with penalties which in their
maximum period are correctional, in accordance with the above-mentioned Art..

Light felonies are those infractions of law for the commission of which a penalty of
arrest menor or a fine not exceeding 200 pesos or both; is provided.

Article 10. Offenses not subject to the provisions of this Code. - Offenses which are
or in the future may be punishable under special laws are not subject to the
provisions of this Code. This Code shall be supplementary to such laws, unless the
latter should specially provide the contrary.

Chapter Two
JUSTIFYING CIRCUMSTANCES AND CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH EXEMPT
FROM CRIMINAL LIABILITY

Article 11. Justifying circumstances. - The following do not incur any criminal liability:

1. Anyone who acts in defense of his person or rights, provided that the
following circumstances concur;

First. Unlawful aggression.

Second. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or

repel it.

Third. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending

himself.

2. Any one who acts in defense of the person or rights of his spouse,
ascendants, descendants, or legitimate, natural or adopted brothers or
sisters, or his relatives by affinity in the same degrees and those
consanguinity within the fourth civil degree, provided that the first and second
requisites prescribed in the next preceding circumstance are present, and the
further requisite, in case the revocation was given by the person attacked, that
the one making defense had no part therein.

3. Anyone who acts in defense of the person or rights of a stranger, provided

that the first and second requisites mentioned in the first circumstance of this
Article are present and that the person defending be not induced by revenge,
resentment, or other evil motive.
 4. Any person who, in order to avoid an evil or injury, does not act which
causes damage to another, provided that the following requisites are present;

First. That the evil sought to be avoided actually exists;

Second. That the injury feared be greater than that done to avoid it;

Third. That there be no other practical and less harmful means of

preventing it.

5. Any person who acts in the fulfillment of a duty or in the lawful exercise of
a right or office.

6. Any person who acts in obedience to an order issued by a superior for

some lawful purpose.

Article 12. Circumstances which exempt from criminal liability. - the following are
exempt from criminal liability:

1. An imbecile or an insane person, unless the latter has acted during a lucid
interval.

When the imbecile or an insane person has committed an act which the law
defines as a felony (delito), the court shall order his confinement in one of the
hospitals or asylums established for persons thus afflicted, which he shall not
be permitted to leave without first obtaining the permission of the same court.

2. A person under nine years of age.

3. A person over nine years of age and under fifteen, unless he has acted with
discernment, in which case, such minor shall be proceeded against in
accordance with the provisions of Art. 80 of this Code.

When such minor is adjudged to be criminally irresponsible, the court, in

conformably with the provisions of this and the preceding paragraph, shall
commit him to the care and custody of his family who shall be charged with
his surveillance and education otherwise, he shall be committed to the care
of some institution or person mentioned in said Art. 80.

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. Any person who act under the compulsion of irresistible force.

6. Any person who acts under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of an

equal or greater injury.

7. Any person who fails to perform an act required by law, when prevented by
some lawful insuperable cause.

Chapter Three
CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH MITIGATE CRIMINAL LIABILITY

Article 13. Mitigating circumstances. - The following are mitigating circumstances;

1. Those mentioned in the preceding chapter, when all the requisites

necessary to justify or to exempt from criminal liability in the respective cases
are not attendant.
 2. That the offender is under eighteen year of age or over seventy years. In
the case of the minor, he shall be proceeded against in accordance with the
provisions of Art. 80.

3. That the offender had no intention to commit so grave a wrong as that

committed.

4. That sufficient provocation or threat on the part of the offended party

immediately preceded the act.

5. That the act was committed in the immediate vindication of a grave offense
to the one committing the felony (delito), his spouse, ascendants, or relatives
by affinity within the same degrees.

6. That of having acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have

produced passion or obfuscation.

7. That the offender had voluntarily surrendered himself to a person in

authority or his agents, or that he had voluntarily confessed his guilt before
the court prior to the presentation of the evidence for the prosecution;

8. That the offender is deaf and dumb, blind or otherwise suffering some
physical defect which thus restricts his means of action, defense, or
communications with his fellow beings.

9. Such illness of the offender as would diminish the exercise of the will-power
of the offender without however depriving him of the consciousness of his
acts.

10. And, finally, any other circumstances of a similar nature and analogous to
those above mentioned.

Chapter Four

CIRCUMSTANCE WHICH AGGRAVATE CRIMINAL LIABILITY

Article 14. Aggravating circumstances. - The following are aggravating

circumstances:

1. That advantage be taken by the offender of his public position.

2. That the crime be committed in contempt or with insult to the public

authorities.

3. That the act be committed with insult or in disregard of the respect due the
offended party on account of his rank, age, or sex, or that is be committed in
the dwelling of the offended party, if the latter has not given provocation.

4. That the act be committed with abuse of confidence or obvious

ungratefulness.
5. That the crime be committed in the palace of the Chief Executive or in his
presence, or where public authorities are engaged in the discharge of their
duties, or in a place dedicated to religious worship.

6. That the crime be committed in the night time, or in an uninhabited place,

or by a band, whenever such circumstances may facilitate the commission of
the offense.

Whenever more than three armed malefactors shall have acted together in
the commission of an offense, it shall be deemed to have been committed by
a band.

7. That the crime be committed on the occasion of a conflagration, shipwreck,

earthquake, epidemic or other calamity or misfortune.

8. That the crime be committed with the aid of armed men or persons who
insure or afford impunity.

9. That the accused is a recidivist.

A recidivist is one who, at the time of his trial for one crime, shall have been
previously convicted by final judgment of another crime embraced in the same
title of this Code.

10. That the offender has been previously punished by an offense to which
the law attaches an equal or greater penalty or for two or more crimes to which
it attaches a lighter penalty.

11. That the crime be committed in consideration of a price, reward, or

promise.

12. That the crime be committed by means of inundation, fire, poison,

explosion, stranding of a vessel or international damage thereto, derailment
of a locomotive, or by the use of any other artifice involving great waste and
ruin.

13. That the act be committed with evidence premeditation.

14. That the craft, fraud or disguise be employed.

15. That advantage be taken of superior strength, or means be employed to

weaken the defense.

16. That the act be committed with treachery (alevosia).

There is treachery when the offender commits any of the crimes against the
person, employing means, methods, or forms in the execution thereof which
tend directly and specially to insure its execution, without risk to himself
arising from the defense which the offended party might make.

17. That means be employed or circumstances brought about which add

ignominy to the natural effects of the act.

18. That the crime be committed after an unlawful entry.

There is an unlawful entry when an entrance of a crime a wall, roof, floor,

door, or window be broken.

20. That the crime be committed with the aid of persons under fifteen years
of age or by means of motor vehicles, motorized watercraft, airships, or other
similar means. (As amended by RA 5438).
 21. That the wrong done in the commission of the crime be deliberately
augmented by causing other wrong not necessary for its commissions.

Chapter Five

ALTERNATIVE CIRCUMSTANCES

Article 15. Their concept. - Alternative circumstances are those which must be taken
into consideration as aggravating or mitigating according to the nature and effects of
the crime and the other conditions attending its commission. They are the
relationship, intoxication and the degree of instruction and education of the offender.

The alternative circumstance of relationship shall be taken into consideration when

the offended party in the spouse, ascendant, descendant, legitimate, natural, or
adopted brother or sister, or relative by affinity in the same degrees of the offender.

The intoxication of the offender shall be taken into consideration as a mitigating

circumstances when the offender has committed a felony in a state of intoxication, if
the same is not habitual or subsequent to the plan to commit said felony but when
the intoxication is habitual or intentional, it shall be considered as an aggravating
circumstance.