1|NOTES-CRIM (ARTS 1 -19) KAML

 Article 1
o Time when act takes effect – 01 January 1932
 2 theories in criminal law
o Classical
 Basis of criminal liability: human free will
 Purpose of penalty: retribution
 Stress upon effect or result of the felonious act
 Mechanical and direct proportion between crime and penalty
 Scant regard to human element
o Positivist
 Man is subdued occasionally by a strange and morbid phenomenon which
constrains him to do wrong
 Crime is essentially a social and natural phenomenon, cannot be treated or
fixed, unless dealt individually.
 Article 2
o Laws of the Philippines not only in the Philippines but also outside of its jurisdiction
against those who:
 Commit offense while on a Philippine ship or airship
 Offense onboard a philippine ship or airship even beyond 3 miles off the
shore but not in the territory of a foreign country
 Philippine ship or aircraft
o Registered in the Philippine Bureau of Customs
 Forge or counterfeit any coin or currency note, or obligations and securities of
the Philippines
 Even when in foreign country may be prosecuted before our civil courts
 Liable for acts with the introduction of no. 2 to the philippines
 Dangerous to the economical interest of the country
 Public officers or employees in the exercise of their functions
 Direct bribery/indirect bribery
 Frauds against public treasury
 Possession of prohibited interest
 Malversation of public funds or property
 Failure of accountable office to render accounts
 Illegal use of public funds or property
 Failure to make delivery of public funds or property
 Falsification by a public officer or employee committed with abuse of
his official position
o When any of these is committed abroad, may still be
prosecuted here
 Commit crimes against national security and the law of nations
 Treason
 Conspiracy and proposal to commit treason
 Espionage
 Inciting to war and giving motives for reprisals
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 Violation of neutrality
 Correspondence with hostile country
 Flight to enemy’s country
 Piracy and mutiny on the high seas
o Air, sea, or even in foreign country when acts affect political or economic life of the
nation
o RTC, formerly CFI, have original jurisdiction over all crimes and offenses committed on
the high seas or beyond the jurisdiction of any country on board a ship or warcraft
registered or licensed in the philippines according to its laws
o Continuing offense
 When the forbidden conditions existed during the time the ship was within
territorial waters, regardless of the fact that the same conditions existed when
the ship sailed from the foreign port and while it was on the high seas
o Crimes committed on foreign vessel while on territorial waters
 French rule
 not triable in the courts unless commission affects the peace and
security of the territory or safety of state is endangered
 English rule
 Crimes are triable unless merely affect things within the vessel or refer
to the internal management thereof
 We observe this.
o Warships
 Always to be the territory of the country to which they belong.
 Rep. Act 9372
o Human Security Act of 2007
o March 6, 2007
o Has extraterritorial application
 Shall apply to:
 Individuals who commit crime in the Act within the terrestrial, interior
water, maritime zone and airspace of the Philippines.
 Outside philippines but commit, conspire of plot any crimes of the Act
inside the territorial limits of the Philippines
 Outside territorial limits but onboard a philippine ship or airship
 Crime within any embassy, consulate or diplomatic premises belonging
or occupied by the philippine government in official capacity
 Outside but commit crimes against philippine citizens or person of
philippine descent, where citizenship or ethniccity was a factor In the
commission of the crime
 Outside but commit crimes directly against philippine government
 Article 3
o Felonies
 Acts and omission punishable by law
 Deceit (dolo)
o Act is performed with deliberate intent
3|NOTES-CRIM (ARTS 1 -19) KAML

o Requisites:
 Freedom while doing or committing act
 Have intelligence
 Have intent
 Is a mental state, its existence is shown by overt
acts of a person
 must be spring from a criminal act
 Fault (culpa)
o Wrongful act results from:
 Imprudence
 Deficiency of action
 Involves lack of skill
 Negligence
 Deficiency of perception
 Involves lack of foresight
 Lack of foresight
 Lack of skill
o Requisites:
 Freedom
 Intelligence
 Imprudent, negligent, or lacks foresight or skill
o Injury is unintentional
 Elements:
 There must be an act or omission
 Act or omission must be punishable by RPC
 Act is performed or omission incurred by means of dolo or culpa
o Act
 Mala in se
 With criminal intent
 Immoral even if punished by special law
o Theft, rape, homicide, etc
o So serious so as to lead to unanimous condemnation
 Defined and penalized by special laws
o Possession and use of opium
o Malversation
o Brigandage
o libel
 Mala prohibita
 Prohibited act was intentionally done
o Illegal possession of fire arms
 Violation of rules of convenience
 Voluntary
 Because RPC is based on classical theory = basis of criminal liability is
free will
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 Since man is a rational being

 Dolo = deliberate intent, culpa = imprudence is voluntary but without
malice
 Has direct connection with the felony intended to be committed
 Act of taking = theft
 Only external act is punishable
 Omission
 Inaction
 Failure to perform positive duty
 There must be a law requiring the doing or performance of an act
o Nullum crime sine poena, nulla poena sine lege
 Example:
o Fails to render assistance to any person wounded or in danger
of dying in uninhabited place = abandoment of persons in
danger
o Tax collector with no receipt = illegal exaction
o Has knowledge of conspiracy but does not disclose = misprision
of treason
o Classification of felonies according to means they are committed
 Intentional
 Act or omission is malicious
 Has intention to cause injury to another
o Specific intent:
 Intent to gain – property
 Intent to kill – frustrated or attempted homicide
 Intent of lewd designs – Forcible abduction
 Murder, treason, robbery, malicious mischief
 Intent
o Purpose to use a particular means to effect such result
 Motive
o Moving power which impels one to action for a definite result
o Not essential
 Essential only when there is doubt as to the identity of
the assailant
 Essential when there is no eyewitness
 Essential if evidence is merely circumstantial
o A good motive does not prevent an act from being a crime
 Mercy killing
o Established by the testimony of the witness
 Culpable
 Unintentional
 Incident of another act without malice
 Imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight, lack of skill
 Crimes defined and penalized by special laws
5|NOTES-CRIM (ARTS 1 -19) KAML

 Punished by municipal or city ordinances

o Criminal act is presumed voluntary.
 When there is compulsion or prevention by force or intimidation, there is no
voluntariness in the act
o Fact prevails over assumption
o In absence of indubitable explanation, act is voluntary and punishable
o Mistake of Fact
 Relieves the accused from criminal liability (ignorantia facti excusat)
 Requisites as a defense:
 Act done would have been lawful had the facts been as the accused
believed them to be
o Justifying circumstance
o Absolutory cause
o Involuntary act
 Intention of the accused should be lawful
 Mistake must be without fault or carelessness on the part of the
acccused.
 Untenable when the accused is charged with a culpable felony
 Defense in killing intruder when:
 Unlawful aggression on the part of the person killed
 Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it
 Lack of sufficient provocation on the person defending himself
 Article 4 – Criminal Liability
o Incurred when:
 Delito although the wrongful act done be different from that which he intended
 He who is the cause of the cause is the cause of the evil caused.
 Act is dolo
 Causes which may produce a result different from intended are:
o Mistake in the identity of victim
 Error in personae
o Mistake in the blow
 Aberratio ictus
o Act exceeds the intent – result is greater that intended
 Praeter intentionem
 Any person performing an act which would be an offense against person,
property, were it not for the inherent impossibility of its accomplishment or on
account of the employment of inadequate or ineffectual means.
o Requirements:
 Intentional felony
 Wrong done to the aggrieved party be the direct natural and logical
consequence of the felony committed by the offender
 Proximate cause
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o That cause, which, in natural and continuous sequence, unbroken by any efficient
intervening cause, produces the injury, and without which the result would not have
occurred.
o Except
 There is an active force that intervened between the felony and resulting injury
which is absolutely distinct or foreign from felony
 Resulting injury is due to the intentional act of the victim
 Not efficient intervening causes
o Weak or diseased physical condition
o Nervouseness or temperament of the victim
o Causes which are inherent in the victim
o Neglect of the victim or third person, such as the refusal by the injure party of medical
attendance or surgical operation
o Erroneous or unskillful medical or surgical treatment
 When death is presumed as the natural consequence of physical injuries inflicted:
o Victim, at the time of the injury, is of normal health
o Death expected from physical injuries inflicted
o Death ensued within a reasonable time
 Impossible crimes
o Requisites:
 Act is an offense against persons or properties
 Done with evil intent
 Accomplishment is inherently impossible or means employed is either
inadequate or ineffectual
 Legal impossibility
 Physical impossibility
 Should not constitute a violation of another provision of the RPC
 Felonies against persons:
 Parricide
 Murder
 Homicide
 Infanticide
 Abortion
 Duel
 Physical injuries
 Rape
 Felonies against property:
 Robbery
 Brigandage
 Theft
 Usurpation
 Culpable insolvency
 Swindling and other deceit
7|NOTES-CRIM (ARTS 1 -19) KAML

 Chattel mortgage
 Arson and other crimes involving destruction
 Malicious mischief
o To suppress criminal propensity or criminal tendencies. Objectively, the offender has
not committed a felony, but subjectively, he is a criminal.
 Article 5 – acts which should be repressed but which are not covered by the law
o Requirements of a trial of a criminal case
 Act committed by the accused appears not punishable by any law
 Court deems it proper to repress such act
 Court must render the proper decision by dismissing the case and acquitting the
accused
 Judge must make a report to the Chief Executive, through the secretary of
Justice, stating the reason which induce him to believe that the said acts should
be made the subject of penal legislation
o Nullum crimen sine poena, nulla poena sine lege
o Requirements of excessive penalties
 Accused is guilty
 Penalty provided by law and the court imposes is clearly excessive
 Accused acted with lesser degree of malice
 No injury or injury caused is of lesser gravity
 Court should not suspend the execution of the sentence
 Judge shall submit a statement to the CE through the secretary of Justice,
recommending executive clemency.
