CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS

PARRICIDE INFANTICIDE MURDER HOMICIDE RAPE

Victim = Victim = child
parent or less than (3)
child of the days of age
accused (Article 255 of
Relationshi RPC)
p =
legitimate or Requirements:
illegitimate 1. Outside
maternal
Victim = womb
spouse, 2. Viable
grandparent fetus
or 3. Less than
grandchild three days
Relationshi old
p =
legitimate

PARRICIDE

Legitimate Relationship

The rule on not treating illegitimate grand relationship as a

qualifying circumstance in parricide is based on social condition
before where grandparents were usually not accepting illegitimate
grandchild in the family. The act of killing committed against or by
an illegitimate grandchild is not serious as an act of killing
committed against or by a legitimate grandchild. Hence, illegitimate
grand relationship under the law will not qualify the killing into
parricide to upgrade the penalty.

An offender, who killed his illegitimate grandchild, who was

asleep, and taking his wallet afterward, is liable for murder
qualified by treachery and aggravated by relationship, and theft.
The crime is not parricide since the relationship of the offender in
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this crime with his ascendant other than his child must be
legitimate (2012 Bar Exam).

In parricide involving spouses, the best proof of the legitimate

relationship between the offender and victim is their marriage
certificate. However, in proving the legitimate spousal relationship
between the accused in parricide and the victim, the court may
consider oral evidence, if the same is not contested (1978 Bar
Exam), the admission of the accused (People v. Macal, G.R. No.
211062, January 13, 2016) or the principle of semper praesumitur
pro matrimonio or the presumption established by the Rules of
Court that a man and a woman deporting themselves as husband
and wife have entered into a lawful contract of marriage.

Killing an adopted son is parricide because under Section 17

of R.A. No. 8552, the adoptee shall be considered the legitimate son
of the adopters “for all intents and purposes.”

K is married to H, while D is their daughter. D, who was

impregnated by H, gave birth to a baby boy named V. Exactly three
days after birth, K killed V. What is the crime committed? (2012 Bar
Exam)

K is not liable for infanticide since V is not a child less than

three days of age. Neither is K liable for parricide. V being the son of
K’s daughter and K’s husband is the illegitimate grandson by
consanguinity and the stepson (son by affinity) of K. However,
illegitimate grand relationship and affinity relationship (except
spousal relationship) is not a qualifying circumstance in parricide.
K is liable for murder qualified by treachery.

INFANTICIDE

There are three requisites to make killing as infanticide, to wit:

1. The infant must be killed outside the maternal womb. An

unborn fetus is not an infant. Hence, killing an unborn fetus
CRIMES AGAINST PERSONS

regardless of its viability or intrauterine life is not infanticide,

but abortion;

2. The infant must be viable. Even though the fetus is born alive,
if it is non-viable, it shall not be considered as an infant for
purposes of the crime of infanticide. Killing a non-viable fetus
outside the womb is still abortion; and

3. The infant must be less than three days old. For medical
purpose, a 3-month-old child is an infant. But for purpose of
infanticide, an infant is a child less than 3 days old. A child
with a life of three (3) days or more is not an infant; hence
killing a child who is not an infant, is not infanticide but
parricide or murder.

Live-in partners killed their newly-born child to conceal

dishonor. If the victim is a non-viable fetus, the crime committed is
abortion; if the victim is a viable infant with a life of less than three
days, the crime committed is infanticide. If a victim is a baby with a
life of three days or more, the crime committed is parricide. (2006
Bar Exam)

Killing a three-day old baby is not infanticide since his life is

not less than three days old. The crime committed is murder
qualified by treachery. Minor children, who by reason of their
tender years, cannot be expected to put a defense. When an adult
person illegally attacks a child, treachery exists. (People v. Fallorina,
G.R. No. 137347, March 4, 2004; 2012 Bar Exam)