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> Applies, when all the requisites necessary to justify the act or to exempt
from criminal liability are NOT attendant.
> It is considered a privileged mitigating circumstance, provided, majority of
the elements required to justify or exempt are present.
> But in the case of “incomplete self-defense, defense of relatives, and
defense of a stranger,” unlawful aggression must be present, it being an
indispensable requisite.
> It is the age of the accused at the time of the commission of the crime
which should be determined. His age at the time of trial is immaterial.
REQUISITES:
(1) The provocation must be sufficient.
> Sufficient means adequate to excite a person to commit the wrong and
must accordingly be proportionate to its gravity (People vs. Nabora, 73 Phil
434, 435)
> Depends on:
(a) The act constituting the provocation
(b) The social standing of the person provoked
(c) The place and time when the provocation is made
(2) It must originate from the offended party.
(3) The provocation must be personal and directed at the accused.
(4) The provocation must be immediate to the commission of the crime by
the person who is provoked.
> The threat should not be offensive and positively strong. Otherwise, the
threat to inflict real injury is an unlawful aggression, which may give rise to
self-defense.
BASIS: Diminution of intelligence and intent
Par 5. IMMEDIATE VINDICATION OF RELATIVES OR HIMSELF or
VINDICATION OF GRAVE OFFENSE
REQUISITES:
(1) That there must be a grave offense done to the one committing the felony; his
spouse; ascendants; descendants; legitimate, natural or adopted brothers
or sisters or relatives by affinity within the same degrees.
(2) That the felony is committed in immediate vindication of such grave offense.
> “Immediate” allows a lapse of time unlike in sufficient provocation, as long as the
offender is still suffering from the mental agony brought by the offense to him.
> The infliction of injury must be immediate from the act that caused passion or
obfuscation.
ELEMENTS:
(1) The accused acted upon an impulse.
(2) The impulse must be so powerful that it naturally produced passion or obfuscation.
REQUISITES:
(1) That here be an act, both unlawful and sufficient to produce such a condition of mind
(2) That said act which produced the obfuscation was not far removed from the
commission of the crime by a considerable length of time, during which the perpetrator
might recover his normal equanimity.
(3) The act causing such obfuscation was committed by the victim himself.
> The passion or obfuscation should arise from lawful sentiments in order to be
mitigating.
> May lawfully arise from causes existing only in the honest belief of the offender.
BASIS: Loss of reasoning and self-control, thereby diminishing the exercise of his
willpower.
> When the offender is deaf and dumb, blind or otherwise suffering from some physical
defect, restricting his means of action, defense or communication with other
> The physical defect must relate to the offense committed. E.g. blindness does not
mitigate estafa
BASIS: Offender does not have complete freedom of action; diminution of freedom and
voluntariness
REQUISITES:
(1) That the illness of the offender must diminish the exercise of his willpower.
(2) That such illness should not deprive the offender of consciousness of his acts.
> Includes illness of the mind not amounting to insanity.
EXAMPLES:
(1) Impulse of jealousy, similar to passion and obfuscation.
(2) Testifying for the prosecution, analogous to plea of guilty.
(3) Over 60 years old will failing sight, similar to over 70 years of age under par 2.