LO 1 : GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF

CRIMINAL LAW
TOPIC 01 : WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF
PHILIPPINE TERRITORY FOR
PURPOSES OF CRIMINAL LAW?
TOPIC 01 : WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF PHILIPPINE TERRITORY FOR PURPOSES OF
CRIMINAL LAW?

One of the general characteristics of criminal law is territoriality, which means that penal laws
of the Philippines are enforceable only within its territory. [3] The Constitution provides that:
This is the extent of the Philippine territory as far as the Revised Penal Code is concerned.

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.
TOPIC 02: TERMS AND DEFINITIONS.

Definition of Terms
Abberatio Ictus – mistake in blow.
What is the legal effect of aberratio ictus?
a. may result in complex crime or two felonies
b. if complex, apply Art. 48 - penalty for the more or most serious crime in its maximum period.
Absolutory Causes - where the act committed is a crime but for some reason of public policy and sentiment,
there is no penalty imposed. Exempting and justifying circumstances are absolutory causes.
Accomplices - Persons who do not act as principals but cooperate in the execution of the offense by previous
and simultaneous acts, which are not indispensable to the commission of the crime. They act as mere
instruments that perform acts not essential to the perpetration of the offense.
Act – an overt or external act. Any bodily movement tending to produce some effect in the external world.
Actus Me Invito Factus Non Est Meus Actus – Any act done by me against my will is not my act.
Agent - subordinate public officer charged w/ the maintenance of public order and protection and security of
life and property.
Aggravating Circumstances - Those which, if attendant in the commission of the crime, serve to have the
penalty imposed in its maximum period provided by law for the offense or those that change the nature of
the crime.
Generic - those which apply to all crimes.
Specific - those which apply only to specific crimes.
Qualifying - those that change the nature of the crime.
Inherent - which of necessity accompany the commission of the crime, therefore not considered in
increasing the penalty to be imposed.
Special - those which arise under special conditions to increase the penalty of the offense and cannot be
offset by mitigating circumstances.
Alternative Circumstances – Those which must be taken into consideration as aggravating or mitigating
according to the nature and effects of the crime and the other conditions attending its commission.

Amnesty – is an act of the sovereign power granting oblivion or general pardon. It wipes all traces and
vestiges of the crime but does not extinguish civil liability.
Astucia – (Craft) involved the use of intellectual trickery or cunning on the part of the accused. A chicanery
resorted to by the accused to aid in the execution of his criminal design. It is employed as a scheme in the
execution of the crime.
Bill Of Attainder – A legislative act which inflicts punishment without trial.
Characteristics of Criminal Law
1. General
2. Territorial
3. Prospective
Circumstances That Affect Criminal Liability
1. Justifying circumstances
2. Exempting circumstances
3. Mitigating circumstances
4. Aggravating circumstances
5. Alternative circumstances
Commutation – change in the decision of the court by the chief regarding the degree of the penalty by decreasing
the length of the imprisonment or fine.
Consummated Felonies - when all the elements necessary for its execution and accomplishment are present.
Continued Crime – refers to a single crime consisting of a series of acts but all arising from one criminal resolution.
Although there is a series of acts, there is only one crime committed, so only one penalty shall be imposed.
Crime – acts and omissions punishable by any law.
Criminal law - A branch of municipal law which defines crimes, treats of their nature and provides for their
punishment.
 The Following are not subject to the operation of Philippine Criminal Law
1. Sovereigns and other heads of state
2. Charges d'affaires
3. Ambassadors
4. Ministers plenipotentiary
5. Ministers resident
Cruelty – there is cruelty when the culprit enjoys and delights in making his victim suffer slowly and
gradually, causing unnecessary physical pain in the consummation of the criminal act.
Degree – one whole penalty, one entire penalty or one unit of the penalties enumerated in the
graduated scales provided for in Art. 71
Despoblado – (Uninhabited Place) one where there are no houses at all, a place at a considerable
distance from town, where the houses are scattered at a great distance from each other.
Discernment - the mental capacity to fully appreciate the consequences of the unlawful act, which is
shown by the manner the crime was committed and the conduct of the offender after its commission.
Disfraz (Disguise) – resorting to any device to conceal identity.
Duress - use of violence or physical force.
Dwelling - must be a building or structure exclusively used for rest and comfort (combination of
house and store not included), may be temporary as in the case of guests in a house or bedspacers. It
includes dependencies, the foot of the staircase and the enclosure under the house.
El que es causa de la causa es causa del mal causado - Spanish maxim which means: "He who is the
cause of the cause is the cause of the evil caused.
En Cuadrilla – (Band) whenever there are more than 3 armed malefactors that shall have acted
together in the commission of an offense.
Entrapment - ways and means are resorted to for the purpose of trapping and capturing the
lawbreaker in the execution of his criminal plan.
Error in personae – mistake in identity.
What is the legal effect of error in personae?
a. if same crime results, liable for the same crime
b. if different crime results, apply Art. 49 - penalty for lesser crime in its maximum period
Exempting Circumstances - grounds for exemption from punishment because there is wanting in the
agent of the crime any of the conditions which make the act voluntary or negligent.
Ex Post Facto Law - An act which when committed was not a crime, cannot be made so by statute
without violating the constitutional inhibition as to ex post facto laws.
Felonies – acts and omissions punishable by the Revised Penal Code.
Fence – is a person who commits the act of fencing. A fence who receives stolen property as above-
provided is not an accessory but a principal in the crime defined in and punished by the Anti-Fencing Law.
Fencing – is an act, with intent to gain, of buying, selling, receiving, possessing, keeping, or in any other
manner dealing in anything of value which a person knows or should have known to be derived from the
proceeds of the crime of robbery or theft.
Fraud (fraude) – insidious words or machinations used to induce the victim to act in a manner which would
enable the offender to carry out his design.
Good conduct allowance during confinement – Deduction for the term of sentence for good behavior.
Habitual Delinquency or Multi-recidivism – Where a person within a period of ten years from the date
of his release or last conviction of the crimes of serious or less serious physical injuries, robbery, theft,
estafa or falsification, is found guilty of the said crimes a third time or oftener. This is an
extraordinary aggravating circumstance.
Habitual Delinquent - A person who, within a period of ten years from the date of his release or last
conviction of the crimes of serious or less serious physical injuries, robbery, theft, estafa, or
falsification, is found guilty of any said crimes a third time or oftener.
Ignominy – is a circumstance pertaining to the moral order, which adds disgrace and obloquy to the
material injury caused by the crime.
Imbecile - one while advanced in age has a mental development comparable to that of children between 2
and 7 years old. He is exempt in all cases from criminal liability.
Insane - one who acts with complete deprivation of intelligence/reason or without the least
discernment or with total deprivation of freedom of will. Mere abnormality of the mental faculties will
not exclude imputability.
Instigation - Instigator practically induces the would-be accused into the commission of the offense and
himself becomes a co-principal.
Insuperable Clause - some motive, which has lawfully, morally or physically prevented a person to do
what the law commands.
Irresistible Force - The offender uses violence or physical force to compel another person to commit a
crime.
Justifying Circumstances - where the act of a person is in accordance with law such that said person is
deemed not to have violated the law.
Mala In Se - acts or omissions that are inherently evil.
Mala Prohibita - acts made evil because there is a law prohibiting it.
Misdemeanor - a minor infraction of law.
Mistake of Fact - misapprehension of fact on the part of the person who caused injury to another. He is
not criminally liable.
Mitigating Circumstances - those which if present in the commission of the crime reduces the
penalty of the crime but does not erase criminal liability nor change the nature of the crime.
Motive - it is the moving power which impels one to action for a definite result.
Nullum Crimen, Nulla Poena Sine Lege – There is no crime when there is no law punishing it.
Obscuridad – (Night time) that period of darkness beginning at the end of dusk and ending at
dawn.
Offense - a crime punished under special law.
Omission – failure to perform a duty required by law.
Pardon – an act of grace proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of laws, which
exempts the individual from the punishment the law inflicts for the crime.
Parole – consists in the suspension of the sentence of a convict after serving the minimum term
of the indeterminate penalty, without granting pardon, prescribing the terms upon which the
sentence shall be suspended. In case his parole conditions are not observed, a convict may be
returned to the custody and continue to serve his sentence without deducting the time that
elapsed.
Penalty – suffering inflicted by the State for the transgression of a law.
Period – one of 3 equal portions, min/med/max of a divisible penalty. A period of a divisible penalty when
prescribed by the Code as a penalty for a felony, is in itself a degree.
Person In Authority - public authority, or person who is directly vested with jurisdiction and has the power to
govern and execute the laws.
Plurality Of Crimes – consists in the successive execution by the same individual of different criminal acts upon
any of which no conviction has yet been declared.
Praetor Intentionem - lack of intent to commit so grave a wrong.

What is the legal effect of praeter intentionem?

- a mitigating circumstance (Art. 13, par. 3)

Prescription Of A Crime – is the loss/forfeiture of the right of the state to prosecute the offender after the
lapse of a certain time.
Prescription Of Penalty - means the loss/forfeiture of the right of the government to execute the final sentence
after the lapse of a certain time.
Probation - a disposition under which a defendant after conviction and sentence is released subject to conditions
imposed by the court and to the supervision of a probation officer.
Pro Reo - whenever a penal law is to be construed or applied and the law admits of two interpretations, one
lenient to the offender and one strict to the offender, that interpretation which is lenient or favorable to the
offender will be adopted.
Proximate Cause - the cause, which in the natural and continuous sequence unbroken by any efficient
intervening cause, produces the injury, without which the result would not have occurred.
Quasi-Recidivism – Where a person commits a felony before beginning to serve or while serving a
sentence on a previous conviction for a felony. This is a special aggravating circumstance.
RA 75 - This law penalizes acts which would impair the proper observance by the Republic and its
inhabitants of the immunities, rights, and privileges of duly-accredited foreign diplomatic
representatives in the Philippines.
Rank - The designation or title of distinction used to fix the relative position of the offended
party in reference to others (There must be a difference in the social condition of the offender and
the offended party).
Recidivism – Where a person, on separate occasions, is convicted of two offenses embraced in the
same title in the RPC. This is a generic aggravating circumstance.
Recidivist – one who at the time of his trial for one crime, shall have been previously convicted by
final judgment of another crime embraced in the same title of the RPC.
Reiteracion or Habituality – Where the offender has been previously punished for an offense to
which the law attaches an equal or greater penalty or for two crimes to which it attaches a lighter
penalty. This is a generic aggravating circumstance.
Requisites of Dolo or Malice
1. Freedom
2. Intelligence
3. Intent
Requisites of Culpa
1. Freedom
2. Intelligence
3. Negligence, Imprudence, Lack of Foresight, Lack of Skill
Negligence - it indicates a deficiency of perception; failure to pay proper attention and to use
diligence in foreseeing the injury or damage impending to be caused; usually involves lack of foresight.
Imprudence - it indicates a deficiency of action; failure to take the necessary precaution to avoid
injury to person or damage to property; usually involves lack of skill.
Rules on jurisdiction over private or merchant vessels while in the territory of another country
1. French Rule
2. English Rule
Stand Ground When in The Right - the law does not require a person to retreat when his assailant is
rapidly advancing upon him with a deadly weapon.
Stages In The Execution Of A Crime
1. Attempted Stage - a stage in the execution of a crime where the offender commences commission
of a felony directly by over acts, and does NOT perform all acts of execution which should produce
the felony by reason of some cause or accident other his spontaneous desistance.
2. Frustrated Stage - a stage in the execution of a crime where the offender performs all the acts
of execution which would produce the felony as a consequence but which, nevertheless, do not
produce it due to some cause independent of the will of the perpetrator.
3. Consummated Stage - a stage in the execution of a crime where all the elements necessary for its
execution and accomplishment are present.
Treachery – when the offender commits any of the crimes against the person, employing means,
methods or forms in the execution thereof which tend directly and especially to ensure its
execution without risk to himself arising from the defense which the offended party might make.
Uncontrollable Fear - offender employs intimidation or threat in compelling another to commit a
crime.
Unlawful Entry - when an entrance is effected by a way not intended for the purpose.
Youthful offender – over 9 but under 18 at the time of the commission of the offense.