CRIMINAL LAW

BOOK I
 What is “LAW”?
A rule of conduct, that is just, obligatory, promulgated by legitimate
authority, and for common observance and benefit. (Sanchez Roman)

Purpose: To regulate the conduct of person/s.

“SALUS POPULI EST SUPREMA LEX” (The welfare of the people is the
supreme law.)
INHERENT POWERS OF THE STATE:

1. POLICE POWER
2. POWER OF EMINENT DOMAIN (Power of
Expropriation)
3. POWER OF TAXATION
BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT:
• EXECUTIVE (Law-enforcing body)
• LEGISLATIVE (Law-making body)
• JUDICIAL (Law-interpreting body)
TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

What is “STATUTE”?

A law enacted by the legislative branch of a

government.

Merriam-Webster
 TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

What is “PENAL LAW”?

An act of the legislature which prohibits certain acts and
establishes penalties for its violations.

Lacson vs. Executive Secretary, G.R. 128096, Jan. 1999

 LIMITATIONS ON ENACTMENT OF PENAL
LAWS
1987 Philippine Constitution
Article III (Bill of Rights)

Section 22: No ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted.

Section 14 (1): No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law.

Section 12 (2): No torture, force, violence, threat, intimidation, or any other means which vitiate the
free will shall be used against him. Secret detention places, solitary, incommunicado, or other
similar forms of detention are prohibited.
 EX POST FACTO LAW
• Makes criminal an act done before passage of the law and which was innocent when done, and
punishes such an act.
• Aggravates a crime, or makes it greater than it was, when committed.
• Changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than the law annexed to the crime when
committed.
• Alters the legal rules of evidence, and authorizes conviction upon less or different testimony than
the law or rules require at the time of the commission of the offense.
• Assuming 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 of some lawful protection to which he has become entitled,
such as the protection of a former conviction or acquittal, or a proclamation of amnesty.
In re: Kay Villegas Kami, Inc., G.R. No. L-32485
 BILL OF ATTAINDER

• A legislative act which inflicts punishment without trial. Its

essence is the substitution of a legislative for a judicial
determination of guilt.

People vs. Ferrer, G.R. Nos. L-32613-14

 DUE PROCESS

Dual Aspect:
• Substantive due process – reasonableness of the law
• Procedural due process – right to be heard/ notice and hearing
 TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

What is “CRIMINAL LAW”?

The branch or division of law which DEFINES crimes,
TREATS of their nature, and PROVIDES for their
punishment.

*It is a branch of PUBLIC law.

 PUBLIC LAW vs. PRIVATE LAW
PUBLIC LAW PRIVATE LAW
• involve/govern the relationships • govern the rights and liabilities of
within government and those individuals towards each other.
between the citizens and the state. • Example: Civil law; Commercial
• Example: Constitutional law; law; Labor law
Administrative law; Election law;
Taxation law; Criminal law
 TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

What is “CRIME”?
An act COMMITTED or OMITTED in violation of a public
law forbidding or commanding it. (Bouvier’s Law Dictionary)

• COMMITTED in violation of a public law FORBIDDING it.

• OMITTED in violation of a public law COMMANDING it.
 TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
What is “PENALTY”?
• It is the punishment or suffering imposed by lawful authorities upon
a person who commits a deliberate or negligent act (or omission).

*As judges, we can only interpret and apply them and have no
authority to modify them or revise their range as determined
exclusively by the legislature. (People vs. Dela Cruz)
15
THEORIES JUSTIFYING THE IMPOSITION OF PENALTY

1. PREVENTION: to prevent and suppress the danger to the State arising from
the criminal act of the offender.
2. SELF-DEFENSE: to protect society from the threat and wrong inflicted by the
criminal.
3. REFORMATION: to correct and reform the offender
4. EXEMPLARITY: to serve as an example to deter others from committing
crimes.
5. JUSTICE: that crime must be punished by the State as an act of retributive
justice, a vindication of absolute right and moral law violated by the criminal.
Reyes
 LEGAL MAXIMS IN CRIMINAL LAW
• NULLUM CRIMEN NULLA POENA SINE LEGE
• There is no crime when there is no law punishing it.
Note: Is Common Law applicable in our jurisdiction?

• ACTUS NON FACIT REUM, NISI MENS SIT REA

• The act cannot be criminal unless the mind is criminal.

• IN DUBIO, PRO REO

• When in doubt, rule for the accused.
 LEGAL MAXIMS IN CRIMINAL LAW
• ACTUS ME INVITO FACTUS NON EST MEUS ACTUS
• An act done by me against my will is not my act.

• EL QUE ES CAUSA DE LA CAUSA ES CAUSA DEL MAL CAUSADO

• He who is the cause of the cause is the cause of the evil caused.

• IGNORANTIA LEGIS NEMINEM EXCUSAT

• Ignorance of the law excuses no one from compliance therewith
THEORIES IN CRIMINAL LAW

• Classical Theory
• Positivist Theory
• Eclectic Theory
 CLASSICAL THEORY (or Juristic Theory)

• The basis of criminal liability is HUMAN FREE WILL

• Man has the capacity to choose between right and wrong, good and evil.
Hence, when he does or omits to do an act, he does so willingly and
voluntarily with full knowledge of the effects and consequences thereof.
• Purpose of the penalty is RETRIBUTION.
• Emphasis of the law is ON THE OFFENSE and not on the offender.
Boado
 POSITIVIST THEORY (or Realistic Theory)

• Crime is essentially a social and natural phenomenon and as such, it

cannot be prevented and treated by the application of abstract
principles of law and jurisprudence nor by the imposition of
punishment, fixed and determined adequate; but rather by means of
the enforcement of individual measures in each particular case after a
meticulous, personal and individual investigation performed by a
competent body of psychiatrists and social scientists. (Guevara)
• Purpose of penalty is REFORMATION.
Eclectic Theory (or Mixed Theory)

• A combination of both classical and positivist theories.

 INTERPRETATION OF CRIMINAL LAWS

FACTS:
A law was passed and took effect: Any person who is caught smoking
inside an air-conditioned room shall be punished by 1 year or 3 years.
Boy Yosi was caught smoking in an air-conditioned room.

QUESTION:
What will be the penalty, 1 year or 3 years?
 ANSWER:
The penalty will be 1 year.
• Criminal laws are interpreted or construed against the government and
in favor of the offender.

• “IN DUBIIS REUS EST ABSOLVENDUS” – A legal principle which means

“all doubts should be resolved in favor of the accused”

• “IN DUBIO PRO REO” – A legal principle which means “when in doubt,
rule for the accused”
• Rule of Lenity applies when the court is faced with two possible
interpretations of a penal statute, one that is prejudicial to the
accused and another that is favorable to him. The rule calls for the
adoption of an interpretation which is more lenient to the accused.
(Ient v. Tullet Prebon, G.R. 189158)

• Equipoise Rule is applicable only where the evidence of the

prosecution and the defense are so evenly balanced as to call for
the tilting of the scales in favor of the accused who is presumed
innocent under the Bill of Rights.
(People vs. Ramilla, G.R. 101435)
 - END -

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