Module 1

The Revised Penal Code of the Philippines

AN ACT REVISING THE PENAL CODE AND OTHER PENAL LAWS

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.
Art. 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

Art. 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.

Title Three
PENALTIES
Chapter One
PENALTIES IN GENERAL

Art. 21. Penalties that may be imposed. No felony shall be punishable by any penalty not prescribed by law
prior to its commission.
Art. 22. Retroactive effect of penal laws. Penal Laws shall have a retroactive effect insofar as they favor the
persons guilty of a felony, who is not a habitual criminal, as this term is defined in Rule 5 of Article 62 of this
Code, although at the time of the publication of such laws a final sentence has been pronounced and the convict
is serving the same.

New Civil Code

Article 3. Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith. (2)
Article 14. Penal laws and those of public security and safety shall be obligatory upon all who live or sojourn in
the Philippine territory, subject to the principles of public international law and to treaty stipulations. (8a)

Administrative Code of 1987

CHAPTER 5
OPERATION AND EFFECT OF LAWS

Section 23. Ignorance of the Law. - Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith.

Module 2

(Same as above)

1987 Constitution

ARTICLE VI
THE LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT

Section 11. A Senator or Member of the House of Representatives shall, in all offenses punishable by not more
than six years imprisonment, be privileged from arrest while the Congress is in session. No Member shall be
questioned nor be held liable in any other place for any speech or debate in the Congress or in any committee
thereof.

REPUBLIC ACT No. 75

AN ACT TO PENALIZE ACTS WHICH WOULD IMPAIR THE PROPER OBSERVANCE BY THE REPUBLIC AND
INHABITANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES OF THE IMMUNITIES, RIGHT, AND PRIVILEGES OF DULY ACCREDITED
FOREIGN DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR AGENTS IN THE PHILIPPINES

Section 5. The provisions of section four hereof shall not apply to any case where the person against whom
the process is issued is a citizen or inhabitant of the Republic of the Philippines, in the service of an
ambassador or a public minister, and the process is founded upon a debt contracted before he entered upon
such service; nor shall the said section apply to any case where the person against whom the process is issued
 is a domestic servant of an ambassador or a public minister, unless the name of the servant has, before the
issuing thereof, been registered in the Department of Foreign Affairs, and transmitted by the Secretary of
Foreign Affairs to the Chief of Police of the City of Manila, who shall upon receipt thereof post the same in
some public place in his office. All persons shall have resort to the list of names so posted in the office of the
Chief of Police, and take copies without fee.

Section 7. The provisions of this Act shall be applicable only in case where the country of the diplomatic or
consular representative adversely affected has provided for similar protection to duly accredited diplomatic or
consular representatives of the Republic of the Philippines by prescribing like or similar penalties for like or
similar offenses herein contained.

COMMONWEALTH ACT No. 408

[14 September 1938]

As amended by:
Republic Act Nos. 516* and 242**
Presidential Decree Nos. 1968*** and 1166****

AN ACT FOR MAKING FURTHER AND MORE EFFECTUAL PROVISION FOR THE NATONAL DEFENSE BY
ESTABLISHING A SYSTEM OF MILITARY JUSTICE FOR PERSONS SUBJECT TO MILITARY LAW

Article 2. Persons subject to Military Law - The following persons are subject to these articles and shall be
understood as included in the term "any person subject to military law" or persons subject to military law,
whenever used in these articles:

a. All officers and soldiers in the active service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines or of the Philippine
Constabulary; all members of the reserved force, from the dates of their call to active duty and while on
such active duty; all trainees undergoing military instruction; and all other persons lawfully called,
drafted, called into, or to duty or for training in, the said service, from the dates they are required by the
terms of the call, draft, or order to obey the same;
b. Cadets, flying cadets, and probationary second lieutenants;
c. All retainers to the camp and all persons accompanying or serving with the Armed Forces of the
Philippines in the field in time of war or when martial law is declared though not otherwise subject to
these articles;
d. All persons under sentence adjudged by courts-martial.

[As amended by R.A. Nos. 242 and 516]

Module 3

(Same Provisions in Revised Penal Code above)

New Civil Code

Article 4. Laws shall have no retroactive effect, unless the contrary is provided. (3)
Article 7. Laws are repealed only by subsequent ones, and their violation or non-observance shall not be
excused by disuse, or custom or practice to the contrary.

When the courts declared a law to be inconsistent with the Constitution, the former shall be void and the
latter shall govern.

Administrative or executive acts, orders and regulations shall be valid only when they are not contrary to the
laws or the Constitution. (5a)

Article 8. Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a part of the legal
system of the Philippines. (n)

Article 9. No judge or court shall decline to render judgment by reason of the silence, obscurity or
insufficiency of the laws. (6)

Article 10. In case of doubt in the interpretation or application of laws, it is presumed that the lawmaking
body intended right and justice to prevail. (n)

Article 11. Customs which are contrary to law, public order or public policy shall not be countenanced. (n)

Administrative Code of 1987

CHAPTER 5
OPERATION AND EFFECT OF LAWS

Section 19. Prospectivity. - Laws shall have prospective effect unless the contrary is expressly provided.

Section 20. Interpretation of Laws and Administrative Issuances. - In the interpretation of a law or
administrative issuance promulgated in all the official languages, the English text shall control, unless
otherwise specifically provided. In case of ambiguity, omission or mistake, the other texts may be consulted.

Section 21. No Implied Revival of Repealed Law.- When a law which expressly repeals a prior law itself
repealed, the law first repealed shall not be thereby revived unless expressly so provided.

Section 22. Revival of Law Impliedly Repealed. - When a law which impliedly repeals a prior law is itself
repealed, the prior law shall thereby be revived, unless the repealing law provides otherwise.

1987 Constitution

ARTICLE III
BILL OF RIGHTS

Section 14.

1. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law.
2. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved, and
shall enjoy the right to be heard by himself and counsel, to be informed of the nature and cause of the
accusation against him, to have a speedy, impartial, and public trial, to meet the witnesses face to face,
and to have compulsory process to secure the attendance of witnesses and the production of evidence
 in his behalf. However, after arraignment, trial may proceed notwithstanding the absence of the
accused: Provided, that he has been duly notified and his failure to appear is unjustifiable.

Section 22. No ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted.

Module 4

Revised Penal Code

Book 1

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.
Art. 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

Art. 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.

Book 2
CRIMES AND PENALTIES
Title One
CRIMES AGAINST NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE LAW OF NATIONS
Chapter One
 CRIMES AGAINST NATIONAL SECURITY
Section One. Treason and espionage
Art. 116. Misprision of treason. Every person owing allegiance to (the United States) the Government of the
Philippine Islands, without being a foreigner, and having knowledge of any conspiracy against them, conceals
or does not disclose and make known the same, as soon as possible to the governor or fiscal of the province,
or the mayor or fiscal of the city in which he resides, as the case may be, shall be punished as an accessory to
the crime of treason.

Chapter Two
CRIMES AGAINST SECURITY
Section One. Abandonment of helpless persons
and exploitation of minors.
Art. 275. Abandonment of person in danger and abandonment of one's own victim. The penalty of arresto
mayor shall be imposed upon:
1. Any one who shall fail to render assistance to any person whom he shall find in an uninhabited place wounded
or in danger of dying, when he can render such assistance without detriment to himself, unless such omission
shall constitute a more serious offense.

Chapter Three
FRAUDS AND ILLEGAL EXACTIONS AND TRANSACTIONS
Art. 213. Frauds against the public treasury and similar offenses. The penalty of prision correccional in its
medium period to prision mayor in its minimum period, or a fine ranging from 200 to 10,000 pesos, or both,
shall be imposed upon any public officer who:
2. Being entrusted with the collection of taxes, licenses, fees and other imposts, shall be guilty or any of the
following acts or omissions:
(b) Failing voluntarily to issue a receipt, as provided by law, for any sum of money collected by him officially.

Title Fourteen
QUASI-OFFENSES
Sole Chapter
CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE

Art. 365. Imprudence and negligence. Any person who, by reckless imprudence, shall commit any act which,
had it been intentional, would constitute a grave felony, shall suffer the penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum
period to prision correccional in its medium period; if it would have constituted a less grave felony, the penalty
of arresto mayor in its minimum and medium periods shall be imposed; if it would have constituted a light
felony, the penalty of arresto menor in its maximum period shall be imposed.

Any person who, by simple imprudence or negligence, shall commit an act which would otherwise constitute a
grave felony, shall suffer the penalty of arresto mayor in its medium and maximum periods; if it would have
constituted a less serious felony, the penalty of arresto mayor in its minimum period shall be imposed.
When the execution of the act covered by this article shall have only resulted in damage to the property of
another, the offender shall be punished by a fine ranging from an amount equal to the value of said damages
to three times such value, but which shall in no case be less than twenty-five pesos.

A fine not exceeding two hundred pesos and censure shall be imposed upon any person who, by simple
imprudence or negligence, shall cause some wrong which, if done maliciously, would have constituted a light
felony.
In the imposition of these penalties, the court shall exercise their sound discretion, without regard to the rules
prescribed in Article sixty-four.
The provisions contained in this article shall not be applicable:
1. When the penalty provided for the offense is equal to or lower than those provided in the first two paragraphs
of this article, in which case the court shall impose the penalty next lower in degree than that which should be
imposed in the period which they may deem proper to apply.
2. When, by imprudence or negligence and with violation of the Automobile Law, to death of a person shall be
caused, in which case the defendant shall be punished by prision correccional in its medium and maximum
periods.

Reckless imprudence consists in voluntary, but without malice, doing or falling to do an act from which material
damage results by reason of inexcusable lack of precaution on the part of the person performing of failing to
perform such act, taking into consideration his employment or occupation, degree of intelligence, physical
condition and other circumstances regarding persons, time and place.

Simple imprudence consists in the lack of precaution displayed in those cases in which the damage impending
to be caused is not immediate nor the danger clearly manifest.
The penalty next higher in degree to those provided for in this article shall be imposed upon the offender who
fails to lend on the spot to the injured parties such help as may be in this hand to give. (As amended by R.A.
1790, approved June 21, 1957).
FINAL PROVISIONS

Art. 366. Application of laws enacted prior to this Code. Without prejudice to the provisions contained in
Article 22 of this Code, felonies and misdemeanors, committed prior to the date of effectiveness of this Code
shall be punished in accordance with the Code or Acts in force at the time of their commission.
Administrative Code of 1987

Administrative Code of 1987

BOOK I

SOVEREIGNTY AND GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

CHAPTER 1
THE NATIONAL TERRITORY

Section 3. What Comprises National Territory. - The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago,
with all the islands and waters embraced therein, and all other territories over which the Philippines has
sovereignty or jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial, fluvial, and aerial domains, including its territorial sea,
the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other submarine areas. The waters around, between, and
connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of their breadth and dimensions, form part of the
internal waters of the Philippines.
 1987 Constitution

ARTICLE I
NATIONAL TERRITORY

The national territory comprises the Philippine archipelago, with all the islands and waters embraced therein,
and all other territories over which the Philippines has sovereignty or jurisdiction, consisting of its terrestrial,
fluvial and aerial domains, including its territorial sea, the seabed, the subsoil, the insular shelves, and other
submarine areas. The waters around, between, and connecting the islands of the archipelago, regardless of
their breadth and dimensions, form part of the internal waters of the Philippines.