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Salient Points on
REVISED PENAL CODE
BOOK 1
took effect January 1, 1932
Lecture Outline
I. General Principles
1. Criminal Law, defined
2. Limitations on the power of Congress to enact penal laws
3. Characteristics of Criminal Law
4. Theories of Criminal Law
5. Sources of Criminal Law
6. Basic Maxims in Criminal Law
7. Distinctions MALA IN SE AND MALA PROHIBITA
8. How felonies are committed
9. Distinction between intent and motive
10. Causes which produce a different result:
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3. Characteristics of Criminal Law
1. Generality
2. Territoriality
3. Prospectivity.
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Characteristics of Criminal Law
General – the law is binding to all persons who reside in the
Philippines.
Territoriality means that the penal laws of the country have force and
effect only within its territory. It cannot penalize crimes committed
outside the same. This is subject to certain exceptions brought about by
international agreements and practice. The territory of the country is not
limited to the land where its sovereignty resides but includes also its
maritime and interior waters as well as its atmosphere.
All bodies of water comprising the maritime zone and interior waters
abounding different islands comprising the Philippine Archipelago are part of
the Philippine territory regardless of their breadth, depth, width or
dimension.
3. Prospective (Prospectivity)– the law does not
have any retroactive effect.
Stages of Commission of a
Crime
Attempt Frustrated Consummated
Overt acts of All acts of execution are All the acts of execution
execution are started present are present
• Not all acts of execution Crime sought The result sought is
are present to be committed is achieved
not achieved
2. A put poison in B’s food. B threw away his food. A is liable - attempted murder.
3. A stole B’s car, but he returned it. A is liable - (consummated) theft.
4. A aimed his gun at B. C held A’s hand and prevented him from shooting B -
attempted murder.
5. A inflicted a mortal wound on B. B managed to survive - frustrated murder.
Art. 7. When light felonies are punishable
Less grave felonies are those which the law punishes with
penalties which in their maximum period are correctional,
in accordance with the above-mentioned article.
Since there is no crime, there is no criminal Since there is a crime, there is a criminal (but
and no civil liability. exempt from criminal liability) and there is
civil liability.
The emphasis of the law is on the act The emphasis of the law is on the actor.
Instigation vs. Entrapment
INSTIGATION ENTRAPMENT
Instigator practically induces the would-beThe ways and means are resorted to for
accused into the commission of the offensethe purpose of trapping
and himself becomes co-principal and capturing the
lawbreaker in the execution of his criminal
plan.
Accused will be acquitted NOT a bar to accused’s prosecution and
conviction
Absolutory cause NOT an absolutory cause
Absolutory Causes – are those where the act committed is a crime but for some
reason of public policy and sentiment, there is no penalty imposed
Exempting and Justifying Circumstances are absolutory causes.
Art. 12. EXEMPTING CIRCUMSTANCES
a) Self-defense/defense of
b) State of Necessity (par 4) avoidance of
greater evil or injury; if any of the last 2 requisites is absent,
there’s only an ordinary Mitigating Circumstance.
Nighttime begins at the end of dusk and ending at dawn; from sunset to
sunrise
Uninhabited Place – one where there are no houses at all, a place at a
considerable distance from town, where the houses are scattered at a
great distance from each other.
7. That the crime be committed on the occasion of a
conflagration, shipwreck, earthquake, epidemic or other
CALAMITY OR MISFORTUNE
Requisites:
a. the time when the offender determined to commit the crime;
b. an act manifestly indicating that the culprit has clung to his
determination;
c. a sufficient lapse of time between the determination and execution
to allow him to reflect upon the consequences of his act and to allow his
conscience to overcome the resolution of his will.
14. That (1) CRAFT, (2) FRAUD, OR (3) DISGUISE be employed
Craft – involves intellectual trickery and cunning on the part of the
accused.
It is employed as a scheme in the execution of the crime (e.g. accused
pretended to be members of the military; accused in order to perpetrate
rape, used chocolates containing drugs)
Exception: Art 332 of CC – no criminal liability, civil liabilitySometimes, relationship is a qualifying and not only a
only for the crimes of theft, swindling or malicious mischiefgeneric aggravating circumstance. In the crime of qualified
committed or caused mutually by spouses, ascendants,seduction, the offended woman must be a virgin and less
descendants or relatives by affinity (also than 18 yrs old. But if the offender is a brother of the
brothers, sisters, brothers-in-law oroffended woman or an ascendant of the offended woman,
sisters-in-law if living together). regardless of whether the woman is of bad reputation, even
if the woman is 60 years old or more, crime is qualified
seduction. In such a case, relationship is qualifying.
Intoxication
d. Forms of Inducements
1. By Price, reward or promise
2. By irresistible force or uncontrollable fear
PRINCIPALS BY INDISPENSABLE COOPERATION
a. “Those who cooperate in the commission of the offense
by another act without which it would not have been
accomplished”
Principals by Indispensable Cooperation are those who cooperate
in the commission of the offense by another act without which it
would not have been accomplished.
b. Requisites:
1. Participation in the criminal resolution
2. Cooperation through another act (includes
negligence)
The offender in this case must have
knowledge of the criminal designs of
the principal by direct participation.
Thereafter, he cooperates in the
commission of the offense by an act
without which the crime would not
have been committed.
Art. 18. Accomplices
E.g. of Par 2: placing a weapon in the hand of the dead who was
unlawfully killed to plant evidence, or burying the deceased who was killed
by the principals.
Destroying the corpus delicti
The body of the crime however does not only mean the
body of the person killed. This phrase refers to CORPUS DELICTI – that is,
the body or the substance of the offense (People vs. Bantagan, 54 Phil.
841). Corpus delicti means the fact that a crime has actually been
committed. (People vs. Madlangbayan, 94 SCRA 685)
The corpus delicti is not the body of the person who is killed, even if
the corpse is not recovered, as long as that killing is established
beyond reasonable doubt, criminal liability will arise and if there is
someone who destroys the corpus delicti to prevent discovery, he
becomes an accessory.
While the body of the victim is a part of the term corpus delicti by
itself. The body of the crime may refer to the instrument used in the
commission of the crime such as knife, poison, gun or any material
evidence relevant to prove or establish he commission of the crime.
E.g.: Where the wife misled the authorities informing them that the
person who killed her husband was a thief who has fled, when in truth,
the killer was her paramour, the wife is liable as an accessory for
concealing the body of the crime.
E.g. of Par 3: a) public officers who harbor, conceal or assist in the escape of the principal of
any crime (not light felony) with abuse of his public functions, b) private persons who harbor,
conceal or assist in the escape of the author of the crime – guilty of treason, parricide, murder
or an attempt against the life of the President, or who is known to be habitually guilty of some
crime.
Harboring or concealing an offender
In the case of a public officer, the crime committed by the principal is
immaterial. Such officer becomes an accessory by the mere fact that he helped the principal to
escape by harboring or concealing, making use of his public function and thus abusing the
same.
On the other hand, in case of a civilian, the mere fact that he harbored
concealed or assisted the principal to escape does not ipso facto make him an accessory . The
law requires that the principal must have committed the crime of treason, parricide, murder
or attempt on the life of the Chief Executive. If this is not the crime, the civilian does not
become an accessory unless the principal is known to be habitually guilty of some other crime.
Difference of accessory from principal and accomplice:
a. Accessory does not take direct part or cooperate in,
or induce the commission of the crime
b. Accessory does not cooperate in the commission of
the offense by acts either prior thereto or simultaneous
therewith
c. Participation of the accessory in all cases always
takes place after the commission of the crime
d. Takes part in the crime through his knowledge of
the commission of the offense.
Accessory as a fence
where the crime committed by the principal was robbery or theft, such
participation of an accessory brings about criminal liability under
Presidential Decree No. 1612 (Anti-Fencing Law). One who
knowingly profits or assists the principal to profit by the effects of
robbery or theft is not just an accessory to the crime, but principally
liable for fencing under Presidential Decree No. 1612.
Any person who, with intent to gain, acquires and/or sell, possesses,
keeps or in any manner deals with any article of value which he knows
or should be known to him to be the proceeds of robbery or theft is
considered a “fence” and incurs criminal liability for “fencing” under
said decree. The penalty is higher than that of a mere accessory to the
crime of robbery or theft.
Art. 20. Accessories who are exempt from
criminal liability
Public officer who helped his guilty brother escape does not
incur criminal liability as ties of blood constitutes a more
powerful incentive than the call of duty.
III. Penalties
Exception: Give retroactive effect when favorable to the accused who is not a
habitual delinquent.
e.g. Special law made the penalty less severe – but must refer to the same
deed or omission penalized by the former statute
Ex post facto law: Makes criminal an act
done before the passage of the law and
which was innocent when done, and
punishes such an act.
Bill of Attainder – a legislative act which
inflicts punishment without trial.
Art. 25. Penalties which may be imposed
PRINCIPAL PENALTIES
Capital punishment:
Death.
According to divisibility
a. divisible – those that have fixed duration and are
divisible into 3 periods
b. indivisible – no fixed duration (death, RP, perpetual
or absolute disqualification)
According to gravity
a. capital
b. afflictive
c. correccional
d. light
Duration of Penalties
Execution of Distierro
a) Convict shall not be permitted to enter the place designated in the
sentence nor within the radius specified, which shall not be more than 250 and not
less than 25 km from the place designated.
b) If the convict enters the prohibited area, he commits evasion of
sentence
Art. 89. EXTINCTION OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY