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CRIMINAL LAW
BOOK 1
CRIMINAL LAW
Characteristics
Territoriality- Penal laws have force and effect only within its
territory.
Exceptions(Art. 2, RPC):
1. Should commit an offense while on board 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 offence in the
exercise of their functions.
5. Should commit any of the crimes against national security and the law of
nations.
Philosophies underlying
our System
Eclectic/Mixed Theory
Mala in se
inherently evil
Mala Prohibita
Felonies
Elements of a Felony
Act or omission;
Dolo
criminal intent
freedom
intelligence
Culpa
criminal negligence
freedom
intelligence
Criminal Liability
Art. 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.
Mistake of fact
offender is absolved
Stages of Execution
Art. 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
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.
As a crime
CLASSIFICATION of FELONIES
according to GRAVITY
A. Grave- to which attaches the capital punishment which in any of their
period is afflictive
B. Less grave- penalties which in their maximum period is correccional
C. Light- Arresto Menor
Relevance of this classification:
1. Whether felonies may be complexed or not
2. To determine the prescription of the crime and the prescription of the
penalty
CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING
CRIMINAL LIABILITY
Justifying
Exempting
Mitigating
Aggravating
Alternative
JUSTIFYING:
1. Self Defense
2. Defense of Relative
3. Defense of a Stranger
4. Avoidance of greater evil or injury
5. Fulfillment of duty or lawful exercise of right or office
6. Obedience to an order issued for some lawful purpose
A. SELF-DEFENSE
1. Unlawful aggression
2. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent
or repel the attack
3. Lack of sufficient provocation
B. DEFENSE OF RELATIVE
1. Unlawful aggression
2. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent
or repel the attack
3. In case the provocation was given by the person
attacked, the one making the defines had no part in
such provocation
C. DEFENSE OF STRANGER
1. Unlawful aggression
2. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent
or repel the attack
3. Person defending be not induced by revenge,
resentment or other evil motive
Stranger- any person not included in the enumeration of
relatives mentioned in paragraph 2.
EXEMPTING:
1. Imbecility/Insanity
2. Minority
3. Accident without fault or intention of causing it (Damnum
Absque Injuria)
4. Compulsion of irresistible force
5. Under impulse of uncontrollable fear
6. Prevented by an insuperable cause
A. MINORITY
(Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006)- the following are
exempt from criminal liability:
Child 15 years of age or under at the time of the
commission of the offence. However, the child shall be
subject to an intervention program as provided under
Section 20 of the same law.
Child above 15 years old but below 18 years of age who
acted without discernment
C. IRRESISTIBLE FORCE
1. The compulsion is by means of physical force
2. The physical force must be irresistible
3. The physical force must come tom a third person
D. UNCONTROLLABLE FEAR
1. Existence of an uncontrollable fear
2. The fear must be real and imminent
3. The fear of an injury is greater that or at least equal to
that committed
E. INSUPERABLE CAUSE
1. An act is required by law to be done
2. A person fails to perform such act was due to some
awful or insuperable cause
MITIGATING:
1. Incomplete justifying or exempting circumstances
2. Over 15 and under 18, if there is discernment or over 70 years old
3. No intention to commit so grave a wrong
4. Provocation or threat
A. Provocation must be sufficient
B. Must originate from the offended party
C. Must be immediate to the commission of the crime by the person who
is provoked
7. Voluntary surrender
A. Person has not been actually arrested
B. The offender surrendered himself to a person in
authority or the latters agent
C. The surrender was voluntary
AGGRAVATING:
1. Advantage be taken by the offender of his public
position
2. The crime be committed in contempt of or with insult
to the public authorities
3. Abuse of confidence
4. Dwelling
5. Uninhabited place
6. Committed
A. in the nighttime
B. in an uninhabited place
C. by a band, whenever such circumstance may facilitate
7. With the aid of armed men, or persons who insure or afford impunity
8. Recidivism
offender previously convicted by final judgment of a felony and subsequently
found guilty of another felony embraced in the same title in the RPC
9. Reiteracion or Habituality
Offender
ALTERNATIVE:
1. Relationship
a. Spouse
b. Ascendant
c. Descendant
d. Legitimate, natural or adopted brother or sister
e. Relative by affinity as the same degree of the offender
f.
2. Intoxication
3. Degree of instruction
4. Education
Complex Crime
COMPLEX CRIME -one where the offender has to commit
an offense as a means for the commission of another
offense.
Compound crime is one where a single act produces two
or more crimes.
Composite crime (Special complex crime) is that which,
in substance, is made up of more than one crime, but is
treated by law as one indivisible offense.
Continuing Crime
BOOK 2
The crimes under this title can be prosecuted even if the criminal act or acts were
committed outside the Philippine territorial jurisdiction. However, prosecution can
proceed only if the offender is within Philippine territory or brought to the Philippines
pursuant to an extradition treaty.
Almost all of these are crimes committed in times of war, except the following, which can
be committed in times of peace:
(1) Espionage, under Article 114 This may be committed both in times of war and in
times of peace.
(2) Inciting to War or Giving Motives for Reprisals, under Article 118 Exposing the
Filipinos or their properties because the offender performed an unauthorized act, like those
who recruit Filipinos to participate in the gulf war.
(3) Violation of Neutrality, under Article 119 The Philippines is not a party to a war but
there is a war going on.
2.
3.
4.
Elements of piracy
1. The vessel is on the high seas or Philippine waters;
2. Offenders are neither members of its complement nor passengers of the
vessel;
3. Offenders either
a. attack or seize a vessel on the high seas or in Philippine waters; or
b. seize in the vessel while on the high seas or in Philippine waters the
whole or part of its cargo, its equipment or personal belongings of its
complement or passengers;
4. There is intent to gain.
Elements of mutiny
1. The vessel is on the high seas or Philippine waters;
2. Offenders are either members of its complement, or passengers of the vessel;
3. Offenders either
a. attack or seize the vessel; or
b. seize the whole or part of the cargo, its equipment, or personal belongings of
the crew or passengers.
Mutiny is the unlawful resistance to a superior officer, or the raising of commotions and
disturbances aboard a ship against the authority of its commander.
b.
c.
b.
c.
To inflict any act of hate or revenge upon the person or property of any public
officer or employee;
d.
To commit, for any political or social end, any act of hate or revenge against
private persons or any social classes;
e.
Elements
1. Offender is a public officer within the scope of Article 203;
2. Offender accepts an offer or a promise or receives a gift or present by himself or through
another;
3. Such offer or promise be accepted, or gift or present received by the public officer
(a) With a view to committing some crime; or
(b) In consideration of the execution of an act
which does not constitute a crime, but the
act must be unjust; or
(c) To refrain from doing something which it
is his official duty to do.
CRIMES AGAINST
PERSONS
Parricide (Art. 246);
Elements
1. A person is killed;
2. The deceased is killed by the accused;
3. The deceased is the father, mother, or child, whether
legitimate or illegitimate, or a legitimate other
ascendant or other descendant, or the legitimate
spouse, of the accused.
This is a crime based on the age of the victim. The victim should be less
than three days old.
The offender may actually be the parent of the child. But you call the
crime infanticide, not parricide, if the age of the victim is less than three
days old. If the victim is three days old or above, the crime is parricide.
How committed:
1. By wounding;
2. By beating;
3. By assaulting; or
4. By administering injurious substance.
Acts punished
1. When by reason or on occasion of the robbery (taking of
personal property belonging to another with intent to gain),
the crime of homicide is committed;
2. When the robbery is accompanied by rape or intentional
mutilation or arson;
3. When by reason of on occasion of such robbery, any of
the physical injuries resulting in insanity, imbecility,
impotency or blindness is inflicted;
Elements
1. There is taking of personal property;
2. The property taken belongs to another;
3. The taking was done with intent to gain;
4. The taking was done without the consent of
the owner;
5. The taking is accomplished without the use of
violence against or intimidation of persons of force upon things.
CRIMES AGAINST
CHASTITY
Adultery (Art. 333);
Elements
1. The woman is married;
2. She has sexual intercourse with a man not her husband;
3. As regards the man with whom she has sexual intercourse, he
must know her to be married.
Adultery is a crime not only of the married woman but also of the
man who had intercourse with a married woman knowing her to be
married.
Elements
1. The man is married;
2. He is either
(a) Keeping a mistress in the conjugal dwelling;
(b) Having sexual intercourse under scandalous circumstances
woman who is not his wife;
(c) Cohabiting with a woman who is not his wife in any other place;
3. As regards the woman, she knows that the man is married.
Article 339
Under this article, the victim is limited only to a woman.
The circumstances under which the lascivious acts were
committed must be that of qualified seduction or simple
seduction, that is, the offender took advantage of his
position of ascendancy over the offender woman either
because he is a person in authority, a domestic, a househelp,
a priest, a teacher or a guardian, or there was a deceitful
promise of marriage which never would really be fulfilled.
Person liable
1. Those who abused their authority
(a) Person in public authority;
(b) Guardian;
(c) Teacher;
(d) Person who, in any capacity, is entrusted with the
education or custody of the woman seduced;
Elements:
1. There must be an imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real
or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status, or circumstance;
2. The imputation must be made publicly;
3. It must be malicious;
4. The imputation must be directed at a natural or juridical person, or
one who is dead;
5. The imputation must tend to cause the dishonor, discredit or
contempt of the person defamed.
CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE
Quasi-offenses punished:
1. Committing through reckless imprudence any act which, had it been
intentional, would constitute a grave or less grave felony or light felony;
2. Committing through simple imprudence or negligence an act which
would otherwise constitute a grave or a less serious felony;
3. Causing damage to the property of another through reckless
imprudence or simple imprudence or negligence;
4. Causing through simple imprudence or negligence some wrong
which, if done maliciously, would have constituted a light felony.