Definition of terms

Criminal Law- a branch of municipal law which defines crimes, treats of their nature,
and provides for their punishment.
Crime- an action or omission that constitutes an offense that may be prosecuted by the
state and is punishable by law.
BASIC MAXIMS IN CRIMINAL LAW
Doctrine of pro reo- when in doubt, for the accused
Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege- there is no crime when there is no law punishing it.
Actus non facit reum, nisi mens sit rea- an act does not make a defendant guilty without
a guilty mind.
Characteristics of Criminal Law
1. Generality- the law is binding to all who live or sojourn in the Philippine territory.
(This answers the question WHO will be liable under the Criminal Law of the
Philippines) Also the tourists (exempted Diplomats, charge d’affaires, ambassador- they
are vested with blanket diplomatic immunity from civil and criminal suits while Consular
Officers are only entitled to criminal immunity in relation to the acts performed in the
exercise of function) Immunity does not cover slander or reckless imprudence resulting
in homicide for not being function-related)
2. Territoriality- the law is binding to all crimes committed within the National Territory
of the Philippines. (This answers the question WHERE is the crime committed to be
liable under the Criminal Law of the Philippines)except Foreign registered vessel, high
seas, forgery, flag state rule)
3. Prospectivity- the law does not have any retroactive effect. (Nullum crimen, nulla
poena sine lege- there is no crime when there is no law punishing it.) (Applying to the
future but if the law is favorable to the accused provided that he is not a habitual delinquent, the
law will have a retroactive effect; if the law decriminalizes an act; the law expressly provides
retroactivity )

Felonies
- are acts or omissions punishable by the revised penal code, with following
elements:
1. there must be an act or omission;
2. the act or omission must be punishable; and
3. the act is performed or the omission incurred by means of dolo or culpa
Offenses : special laws
Infraction or misdemeanors: violations of municipal ordinances.
Classification of Felonies
According to manner or mode of execution:
1. Intentional Felonies (dolo)
2. Culpable Felonies (culpa)
Classification of Felonies
According to stages of execution:
1. Consummated Felony- when all the elements necessary for its execution and
accomplishment are present
2. Frustrated Felony- when the offender performs all the acts of execution which
should produce the felony as a consequence, but which, nevertheless, do not produce it by
reason of causes independent of the will of the perpetrator.
 3. Attempted Felony- when the offender commences the commission of
the felony directly by overt acts, and does not perform all the acts of execution which constitute
the felony by reason of some cause or accident other than his own voluntarily desistance.
CLASSIFICATION OF CRIME
Mala in se- evil in itself.
example:
Robbery, Arson, Murder
Mala prohibita- wrong because they are prohibited by law.
Example:
Selling liquor/cigarettes to a minor, Speeding
Determining Criminal Liability
Criminal liability for a felony committed different from that intended:
Requisites:
1. Felony has been committed intentionally;
2. Injury or damage done to the other party is direct natural and logical consequence of
the felony.
Manner or incurring criminal liability
ERROR IN PERSONAE -mistake in the identity of a person
ABERRATIO ICTUS- mistake in the blow
PRAETER INTENTIONEM- injurious result is greater than that intended.
Liable for the direct, natural and logical consequence of the intentional felony)(Self-help)
Determining Criminal Liability
Impossible Crime
Requisites:
1. Act would have been an offense against persons or property;
2. There is criminal intent;
3. Accomplishment is inherently impossible or inadequate or ineffectual means are
employed;
4.Act is not actual violation of another provision of the code or of special law
• Impossible crime is not a crime but with a penalty; person punished for his
criminal tendencies.

Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability

Justifying Circumstances:
(Actus non facit reum, nisi mens sit rea)
1. Self-Defense: (to avail this as justifying circumstances all the elements must
be present; incomplete self defense, UA must always be present together with any of
the two remaining elements) ISD- mitigating Circumstances
a. Unlawful Aggression;
b. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it; and
c. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending himself.
2. Defense of Relative:
a. unlawful aggression;
b. Reasonable necessity to prevent or repel the attack; and
c. the one making a defense had no part therein.

Relatives entitled to the defense:

a. Spouse;
b Ascendants;
c. Descendants;
d. Legitimate, natural/adopted brothers or sisters;
e. Relatives by affinity in the same degree;
f. relatives by consanguinity within the 4th civil degree; and
g. The person defending is not induced by revenge, resentment or other evil motive.
3. Defense of Stranger:
a. unlawful aggression; and
b. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel the attack.
4. State of Necessity:
a. Evil sought to be avoided actually exists;
b. Injury feared be greater than that done to avoid it; and
c. No other practical and less harmful means of preventing it.
5. Fulfilment of Duty or Lawful Exercise of a Right or Office:
a. Acted in the performance of a duty, or in the lawful exercise of a right or office;
b. Offense committed is the necessary consequence due performance of the duty.
(Yapyucu vs Sandiganbayan, GR nos. 120744-46, June 25,2012, Police
authorities, who manned a checkpoint because of an information that there were armed
rebels on board a vehicle, have the duty to validate the information, to identify them,
and make a bloodless arrest unless they were placed in real mortal danger. If they shot
the suspected vehicle, which did not stop after having been flagged down, and killed the
occupants therein, turned out to be unarmed civilians, they are liable for multiple
homicide. The mistake of fact is not applicable since there is negligence or bad faith on
their part.)
6. Obedience to a Superior:
a. there is a legal order;
b. the order is for a legal purpose; and
c. the means used to carry out said order is lawful.
Exempting Circumstances:
1. Imbecile or Insane person unless he acted during lucid interval;
2. Person below 15 YO (RA 9344);
3. Person above 15 but below 18 who has acted without discernment (RA 9344);
4. Accident;
5. Irresistible Force;
6. Uncontrollable Fear; and
7. Insuperable Cause; and
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability
Mitigating Circumstances:
a. Ordinary Mitigating; and
b. Privileged Mitigating
Ordinary Mitigating Circumstances:
1. Incomplete Justifying or Exempting circumstances;
2. Person over 15 but under 18 who acted with discernment;
3. The offender is over 70 years of age;
4. No intention to commit so grave;
 5. Sufficient provocation or threat
6. Immediate vindication of a grave offense;
7. Passion or Obfuscation;
8. Voluntarily Surrender and Confession of Guilt;
9. Physical Defect of the Offender;
10. Illness of the Offender; and
11. Similar Circumstances.
Aggravating Circumstances:
1. That advantage be taken by the offender of his public position;
2. That the crime be committed in contempt of or with insult to the public
authorities;
3. That the act be committed with insult or in disregard of the respect (rank, age,
sex, etc);
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability
Aggravating Circumstances:
4. Committed with abuse of confidence or obvious ungratefulness;
5. Committed in the palace of the Chief Executive, or in his presence or when public
authorities are engaged in the discharge of their duties, or in a place of religious
worship.
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability
Aggravating Circumstances:
6. Committed night-time, uninhabited place or by a band;
7. Committed on the occasion of a conflagration, shipwreck, earthquake, epidemic or
other calamity or misfortune;
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability
Aggravating Circumstances:
8. Committed with the aid of armed men or persons who insure or afford impunity;
9. That the accused is a recidivist;
10. Offender has been previously punished for an offense to which the law attaches an
equal or greater penalty;
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability
Aggravating Circumstances:
11. Committed in consideration of a price, reward or promise;
12. Committed by means of inundation, fire, poison, explosion, stranding a vessel or
intentional damage, or derailment of a locomotive, or by use of any other artifice
involving great waste or ruin.
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability
Aggravating Circumstances:
13. Committed with evident premeditation;
14. That craft, fraud, or disguise be employed;
15.That advantage be taken of superior strength, or means be employed to weaken the
defense;
16. Committed with treachery;
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability
Aggravating Circumstances:
17. The means be employed add ignominy to the natural effects of the acts;
18. Committed after an unlawful entry;
19. The commission of the crime, a wall, roof, door or window be broken;
Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability
Aggravating Circumstances:
20. Committed with the aid of persons under 15 YO, or by means of motor vehicles,
airships or other similar means; and
21. The crime is deliberately augmented by causing other wrong not necessary for its
commission. (Raping a victim at a threshold of death- form of ignominy causing
disgrace or as form of cruelty. Hitting the victim thrice using a piece of wood and while
the victim was dying the suspect inserted a toothbrush into a anal orifice- form of
ignominy causing disgrace or as form of cruelty which aggravated the murder because it
was unnecessary to the commission thereof)

Alternative Circumstances - which must be taken into consideration as aggravating or

mitigating according to the nature and effects of the crime and other conditions
attending its commission?
1. Relationship;
2. Intoxication; and
3. Degree of instruction and education.
Degree of participation
A. Principal;
1. Principal by Direct Participation
2. Principal by Inducement
3. Principal by Indispensable Cooperation
B. Accomplices- are persons who, while not acting as a principal, cooperate in the
execution of the offense by previous or simultaneous acts.
; and
C. Accessories-
Accessories are those who, having knowledge of the commission of the crime, and
without having participated therein, either as principals or accomplices, take part
subsequent to its commission by:
profiting themselves or assisting the offender to profit by the effects of the crime,
concealing or destroying the body of the crime, or the effects or instruments
thereof, in order to prevent its discovery, or
harboring, concealing, or assisting in the escape of the principals of the crime.
Complex Crimes & other forms
1. Compound Crime- When a single act constitutes two or more grave or less
grave felonies
2. Complex Crime Proper - is a necessary means for committing the other
3. Special Complex Crime-is made up of two or more crimes which are
considered only as components of a single indivisible offense being punished in one
provision of the Revised Penal Code.
Complex Crimes & other forms
No Complex Crime in the Following Cases
1. One offense is committed to conceal the other;
2. The other crime is inherent or an element of the other offense;
3. One of the offenses is penalized by a Special Law; and
4. In case of a continuing crime.
Complex Crimes & other forms
Continuing/Continued/Continuous Crime- is a single crime consisting of series of facts
but all arising from one criminal resolution.

Continuing/Transitory Crime - A continuing, continued or continuous crime is different

from a transitory crime in criminal procedure to determine venue.
Classification of penalties

A. Scale:
1. Principal Penalties;
2. Capital Punishments; and
3. Death
Classification of penalties
B. Afflictive Penalties:
1. Reclusion Perpetua;
2. Reclusion Temporal;
3. Perpetual/Temporary Absolute Disqualification;
4. Perpetual or Temporary Special Disqualification; and
5. Prision mayor.
Classification of penalties
C. Correctional Penalties:
1. Prision Correctional;
2. Arresto mayor; and
3. Suspension; and
4. Distierro
D. Light Penalties:
1. Arresto Menor; and
2. Public Censure
Extinction of criminal liability
A. Total Extinction of Criminal Liability:
1. by the death of the convict;
2. by service of the sentence;
3. by amnesty;
4. by absolute pardon;
5. by prescription of the crime;
6. by prescription of the penalty; and
7. by the marriage of the offended woman.

Extinction of criminal liability

B. Partial Extinction of Criminal Liability
1. by conditional pardon;
2. by commutation of sentence; and
3. for good conduct allowance.
Prescription of Crimes
1. Death and Reclusion Perpetua- 20 years;
2. Afflictive Penalties- 15 years;
3. Correctional penalties- 10 years, exception:
penalty of arresto mayor- 5 years; and
4. Light Penalties- 1 year.
END OF PRESENTATION