CRIMINAL LAW

- That branch or division of law which defines crimes, treats of their nature, and provides for their
punishment.

CRIME – an act committed or omitted in violation of a public law forbidding or commanding it.

SOURCES OF PHILIPPINE CRIMINAL LAW

1. RPC (Act No. 3815) and its amendments;

2. Special Penal Laws passed by the Phil. Commission, Phil. Assembly, Phil Legislature, National
Assembly, Congress, and the Batasang Pambansa;
3. Penal Presidential Decrees issued during Martial Law

The so-called common law crimes are not recognized in the Philippines, unless there be a particular
provision in the penal code or special penal law that defines and punishes the act.

Court decisions are not sources of criminal law, because they merely explain the meaning of, and apply,
the law as enacted by the legislative branch of the government.

People vs Santiago, 43 Phil. 120, 124: The State has the authority, under its police power, to define and
punish crimes and to lay down the rules of criminal procedure.

Constitutional limitations: Bill of Rights, 1987 Constitution

1. No ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted (Article III, Sec. 22)
Ex post facto law:
a. Makes criminal an act done before the passage of the law and which was innocent when
done, and punishes such an act;
b. Aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed
c. Changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the
crime when committed
d. Alters the legal rules of evidence, and authorizes conviction upon less or different testimony
than the law required at the time of the commission of the offense;
e. Assumes to regulate civil rights and remedies only, in effect imposes penalty or deprivation
of a right for something which when done, was lawful; deprives a person accused of a crime
some lawful protection to which he has become entitled, such as the protection of a former
conviction or acquittal, or a proclamation of amnesty.
Congress is prohibited from passing an act which would inflict punishment without judicial trial, as it
would constitute:
Bill of attainder – a legislative act which inflicts punishment without trial.

1. No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law. (Art. III,
Sec. 14[1])