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.