CRIMINAL LAW 1

College of Criminology
University of Perpetual Help System-Molino Campus
First Semester- Academic Year 2022-2023

PART I – DEFINITIONS AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES

1. Definition of Criminal Law

- is that branch of municipal law which defines crimes, treats of their nature and
provides for their punishment.
It is the branch of public law which defines offenses and prescribes their
penalties. It is substantive because it defines the State’s right to inflict punishment and
the liability of the offenders. It is public law because it deals with the relation of the
individual with the State.

2. Constitutional Limitations on the power of Congress to Enact Penal Laws

The limitations on the power of Congress to enact penal laws are found in Article
III of the 1987 Constitution. These limitations include:
 The law must observe both substantive and procedural due process Art.
III, Section 1).
 The law must be general in application (Art. III, Section !)
 The law should not impose cruel and unusual punishment or excessive
fines (Art, Section 19)
 The law should not operate as a bill of attainder or as an ex-post facto law

3. What is a Bill of Attainder?

 Is a legislative act which inflicts injury penalty without judicial trial.

4.What is an Ex-Post Facto Law?

 It is a law which (1) makes criminal an act done before ethe passage of
the law and which was innocent when done and punishes such act; (2)
aggravates a crime or makes it greater than it was committed; and (3)

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 changes the punishment and inflicts a greater punishment than the law
annexed to the crime when committed.

5. Felony, Offense and Infraction of an Ordinance, Distinguished

 If the crime is punished by the Revised Penal Code, it is called felony; if
by a special law, it is called an offense; and if by an ordinance, it is called
infraction of an ordinance.
6. Theories in Criminal Law
 Classical/Juristic Theory- where the basis of criminal liability is human
free will. The purpose of the penalty is retribution in view of the
voluntariness of the act or omission of the offender. The emphasis is on
the offense and not on the offender.
 Positivist or Realist Theory- where ethe view is that man is inherently
good but the offender is socially sick. The purpose of the penalty is
reformation and the emphasis is on the offender and not on the offense.
 Eclectic Theory- combination of the good features of both the classical
and the positivist theory.
 Utilitarian Theory – they espouse the ides that the primary function of
punishment in criminal law is to protect the society from potential and
actual wrongdoers.

7. Characteristics of Criminal Law

 Generality - that the law is binding upon all persons who reside or sojourn
in the Philippines, irrespective of age, sex, color, creed, or personal
circumstances.
Exceptions:
 Those provided by public international law, by treaty
stipulations or by a law of preferential application.
 Under the principle of public international law, sovereigns
or heads of states, ambassadors, ministers
plenipotentiary and ministers- resident, charges
d’affairs and attaches are exempt from criminal
prosecution.

 Territoriality – that the law is applicable to all crimes committed within the
limits of Philippine territory, which includes its atmosphere, interior waters
and maritime zone. (Terrestrial, fluvial and aerial)

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 o The provision of Art. 2 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) has two
(2) scopes of applications:
o Intraterritorial - refers to the application of the RPC within the
Philippine territory
o Extraterritorial- refers to the application of RPC outside the
Philippine territory. Extraterritorial application of the RPC on crime
committed on board Philippine ship or airship refers only to a
situation where the Philippine ship or airship is not within the
territorial waters or atmosphere of a foreign country, Otherwise, it is
the foreign country’s criminal law that will apply.
o However, there are two (2) situations where the foreign country
cannot apply its criminal law, even if a crime is committed on board
a vessel within its territorial waters, as follows:
 When the crime is committed in a war vessel of a foreign
country, because war vessels are part of the sovereignty
of the country to whose naval force they belong; and
 When the foreign country in whose territorial waters the
crime was committed adopts the French Rule, which applies
only to merchant vessels, except when the crime is
committed affects the national security or public order of
such foreign country.
o The French Rule- the rule provides that the nationality of
the vessel follows the flag which the vessel plies, unless
the crime endangers the national security of a foreign
country, in which case, the foreign country will have
jurisdiction.
o English Rule- strictly applies the principle of territoriality.
Regardless of the vessels flag or country of registration,
the criminal law of the foreign country applies if the crime
is committed in a foreign vessel within its territory.

 Prospectivity or Irretrospectivity- that the law does not have any

retroactive effect, except if it is favorable to the offender. In such a case,
the law would have a retroactive application, provided that the offender is
not a habitual delinquent.

PART II- FELONIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES AFFECTING CRIMINAL LIABILITY

1. Definition of Felony

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  Acts and omissions punishable by law (Revised Penal Code) are felonies. It is
committed not only by means of deceit (dolo) but also my means of fault (culpa).
 There is deceit when the act is performed with deliberate intent; and there is fault
when the wrongful act results from imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight, or
lack of skill.
2. Classification of Felonies according to the manner of commission:
 Intentional (Dolo) Felony- there is deliberate intent otherwise referred to
as criminal intent.
 Culpable (Culpa) Felony - refers to criminal negligence.
3. Elements of “Dolo “ and “Culpa”
A. “Dolo”
 Criminal Intent
 Freedom
 Intelligence

B. “Culpa”
 Criminal Negligence
 Freedom
 Intelligence

4. Intent distinguished from Motive- Intent is demonstrated by the use of a particular

means to bring about a desired result-it is not a state of mind or a reason for committing
a crime.
On the other hand, motive implies motion. It is the moving power which impels one to do
an act. When there is motive in the commission of a crime, it always comes before
intent. But a crime may be committed without motive.
5. How criminal liability is incurred? ( Art. 4, RPC)
 By committing a felony even if the wrong produced as a consequence thereof is
not intended by the offender (Par. 1, Art. 4)
 In case of impossible crimes
Elements:
 Acts are performed which would be a crime against person or
property.
 There is criminal intent
 It is not accomplished because of inherent impossibility or because
the means employed is inadequate or ineffectual.

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 If the act performed would be an offense other than a felony against persons or
against property, there is no impossible crime.
6. Mistake of Fact ( -It is an act or omission which is the result of misapprehension of
facts that is voluntary but not intentional. When an offender acted out of a
misapprehension of fact, it cannot be said that he acted with criminal intent.
7. What are included in Art. 4. Paragraph 1 of RPC?
 Mistake of Identity (Error in personae)- In error in personae, the intended victim
was not at the scene of the crime. It was the actual victim upon whom the blow
was directed, but he was not really the intended victim.
 Mistake in the Blow (Aberratio Ictus) -In aberratio ictus, a person directed the
blow at an intended victim, but because of poor aim, that blow landed on
somebody else. The intended victim as well as the actual victim are both at the
scene of the crime.
 Praeter Intentionem (injurious result greater than that intended), the accused
shall be responsible for the crimes committed, whether individually or as complex
crimes, but he may invoke the mitigating circumstance that he did not intend to
commit so grave a wrong.
8. Proximate Cause -refers to the direct, natural and logical consequence of the crime.
-proximate cause does not require that the offender needs to actually touch the
body of the offended party. It is enough that the offender generated in the mind of the
offended party the belief that made him risk himself. Thus, if a person shouted fire, and
because of that a movie goer jumped into the fire escape and died, the person who
shouted fire when there is no fire is criminally liable for the death of that person.
detahdifere
9. Mala In se and Mala Prohibita – An act mala in se is a wrong from its very nature
as those felonies punishable under the RPC.
On the other hand, an act mala prohibita is wrong because e its prohibited by
law. Without the law punishing the act, it cannot be considered wrong.
10. Classification of Felony according to the stages of Execution of a Felony (Art.
6, RPC)
 Consummated- all elements necessary for its execution and accomplishment
are present
 Frustrated – The offender has performed all the acts of execution to produce the
felony as a consequence but the crime does not result due to some cause
independent of the will of the offender.
 Attempted- The offender begins the commission of the felony by direct over acts
but does perform all of the acts of execution which should produce the felony as
a consequence by reason some cause or accident other than his own

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 spontaneous desistance. In law, the attempted stage is only that over act which
“directly” linked to the felony intended to be committed.

11. Over Acts defined

It is defined as some physical activity or deed, indicating intention to commit a
particular crime, more than a mere planning or preparation, which if carried to its
complete termination following its natural course, without being frustrated by external
obstacles nor by the voluntary desistance of the perpetrator, will logically and
necessarily ripen into a concrete offense (People v. Mauricio, GR No. 133695).
12. Formal Crimes
- are those which are always consummated by a single act like slander. Material
crimes are those which three stages of execution, namely, attempted, frustrated and
consummated.
13. Subjective and Objective Phases of Felony
- The subjective phase is that portion of the execution of the crime starting from
the point where the offender begins up to that point where he still has control over his
acts. If it reaches the point where he still has no more control of his acts, the subjective
phase is passed. If the subjective phase is not yet passed, the felony would be a mere
attempt. If it is already passed, the felony is not produced, as a rule, it is frustrated.
If between these points the offender is stopped by any cause outside of his own
voluntary desistance, the subjective phase has not been passed and it is an attempt. If
he is not stopped but continues until he performs the last act, it is frustrated, provided
the crime is not produced. The acts then of the offender reached the objective phase of
the crime.
The objective phase is the result of the acts of execution, that is, the
accomplishment of the crime. If the subjective and objective phases are present, there
is consummated felony.

14. Attempted or Frustrated Felony distinguished from Impossible Crime

In attempted or frustrated felony and impossible crime, the evil intent of the
offender cannot be accomplished. But while in impossible crime, the evil intent of the
offender cannot be accomplished; in attempted or frustrated felony the evil intent of the
offender is possible of accomplishment.

15. Examples of Consummated, Frustrated and Attempted Felonies

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 Homicide or Murder

a. Where the victim was mortally wounded by the accused who stabbed him in the
abdomen but who did not die due to timely medical intervention, the homicide of
frustrated because the death was not produced due to a cause independent of the will
of the offender.
b. If the victim dies a direct consequence of the wound inflicted, the crime is
consummated, even though there may be no intent to kill.
Arson
a. Even if only a portion of the building is burned, arson is consummated. The total
burning of the building is not necessary to consummate the crime.
b. Although all the necessary acts to burn the building have already been performed as
setting on fire some rage soaked in gasoline to burn the building but no portion of the
building was burned, the arson is frustrated.
Theft
a. When the unlawful taking is complete and the article has come under the final control
and disposal of the offender, the theft is consummated.
“Taking” in the case of theft, simply means exercising control over a thing. In our
concept of theft, the offender need not move an inch from where he was. It is not a
matter of carrying away. It is a matter of whether he has already acquired complete
control of the personal property involved. The “complete control” simply means that the
offender has already supplanted his will from the will of the possessor/owner of The
property involved, such that he could exercise his own control on the thing.
So, if a wallet was placed on a table inside a room and a stranger comes inside the
room and gets the wallet and puts it in his pocket, then when the owner started
searching him and found the wallet inside his pocket, the crime of theft is already
consummated because he already acquired complete control of the wallet.
b. Where the accused were seen carrying away fifty coconuts while they were still in the
premises of the coconut plantation, they would within the definition of qualified theft
because the property stolen consist of coconuts taken from the remises of the
plantation. However, the crime the crime committed is only frustrated qualified theft
because the accused were not able to perform all the acts of execution which should
have produced the felony as a consequence. They were not able to carry the coconuts
away from the plantation due to the timely arrival of the owner.

16. Classification of Felonies according to their Gravity (Art. 9):

 Grave

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  Less Grave
 Light Felonies
 Grave Felonies- those in which the law attaches the capital punishment or
penalties or penalties which in any of their periods are afflictive.
Less Grave Felonies- are those which the law punishes with penalties which in
their maximum period are correctional.
Light Felonies are those infraction of the law for the commission of which the
penalty of arresto menor or a fine of not exceeding 200 pesos or both is provided.

17. Circumstances Affecting Criminal Liability and Their Penalties:

 Justifying – those wherein the acts of the actor are in accordance with
law and hence, he incurs no criminal and civil liability.
 Exempting – those wherein there is an absence in the agent of the crime
any of all the conditions that would make an act voluntary and, although
there is no criminal liability, there is civil liability.
 Mitigating- those that have the effect of reducing the penalty because
there is diminution of any of the elements of dolo or culpa, which makes
the act voluntary or because of the lesser perversity of the offender.
 Aggravating-those which serve to increase the penalty without exceeding
the maximum period provided by law because of the greater perversity of
the offender as shown by the motivating power of the commission of the
crime, the time and place of its commission, the means employed or the
personal circumstances of the offender.
 Alternative- those which are either aggravating or mitigating according to
the nature and effects of the crime and other conditions attending its
circumstances.

18. Justifying Circumstances (Art. 11)

Justifying circumstances are classified according to subject:
1. Self-defense
2. Defense of relative
3. Defense of stranger
4. State of necessity
5. Fulfilment of duty
6. Obedience to superior order

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 A. Self Defense Elements:
1. There must be unlawful aggression.
2. reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it.
3. lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending
himself.
Unlawful aggression is an indispensable requisite of self-defense. It is an actual
physical assault or at least a threat to attack or inflict physical injury upon a person. A
mere threatening or intimidating attitude is not considered unlawful aggression, unless
the thereat is offensive and, menacing manifestly showing the wrongful intent to cause
injury. There must be an actual, sudden, unexpected attack or imminent danger thereof,
which puts the defendant’s life in real peril.
Reasonable necessity of the means employed. The reasonableness of the means
employed may take into account the weapons, the physical condition of the parties and
other circumstances showing that there is rational equivalence between the means of
attack and the defense.
Lack of sufficient provocation – For this element to be absent, the provocation must
be sufficient and immediately preceded the act. Sufficient means proportionate to the
damage caused by the act, and adequate to stir one to its commission.
B. Battered women’s Syndrome, as a Defense under (RA 9262) or the Anti-
Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004.
- Victim-survivors who are found by the courts to be suffering from
battered women syndrome do not incur criminal liability and civil liability notwithstanding
the absence of any of the elements for justifying circumstances of self-defense.

C. Defense of Relative (Art. 11 par. 2) Elements:

1. unlawful aggression
2. reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it
3. In case the provocation was given by the person attacked, the person making
the defense had no part in the provocation.
Relative entitled to the defense:
 Spouses, ascendants, descendants, legitimate, natural, adopted brother
or sisters, relatives by affinity in the same degree and those by
consanguinity within the fourth civil degree.

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 Defense of relative cannot be claimed if the relative defended is the
aggressor.
D. Défense od Stranger (Art. 11 par. 3)
A relative not included in the defense of a relative is entitled in the defense of
stranger.
Elements
1. unlawful aggression
2. reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it
3. person defense is not induced by revenge, resentment or other evil motives.
The 3rd element emphasizes that the offender “be not induced by hate, resentment or
other evil motive”. So even an enemy may invoke defense of stranger as long as he is
induced by a motive that is generous not evil. Hence, even if a person has a standing
grudge against the assailant, if he enters upon the defense of a stranger out of a
generous motive to save the stranger from serious bodily harm or possible death, the
third requisite of defense of strangers.
Example:
A person who struggled with the husband who was attacking his wife with a bolo
for the possession of the bolo and in the course and in the course of the struggle,
wounded the husband, was held to have acted in defense of stranger.
E. State of Necessity Art. 11 par. 4)
A state of necessity exists when there is clash between two unequal rights, the
lesser right giving way to the greater rights.
Elements:
1. the evil sought to be avoided actually exists.
2. the injury feared be greater than that done to avoid it.
3. there is no other practical and less harmful means of preventing it.

F. Fulfilment of a Duty or exercise of a Right or Office (Art. 11 par. 5)

Elements:
1. The offender acted in the performance of a duty or the lawful exercise of a
right or office.

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 2. the injury caused or the offense committed is the necessary consequence of
the due performance of such right or office.
A policeman who acts in the performance of his duty cannot be exonerated from
overdoing his fulfilment of his duty.

G. Obedience to Superior Order (Art. 11 par.6)

Elements:
1. An order has been issued by a superior.
2. the order is for a legal purpose; and
3. the means used to carry out said order is lawful

19. EXEMPTING CIRCUMSTANCES

The following are exempt from criminal liability:
a. An imbecile or insane person unless the latter has acted during lucid interval.
b. A child fifteen (15) years of age or under at the time of the commission of the
offense.
c. A child above 15 years of age but below 18 unless he/she acted with
discernment.
d. Any person who, while performing a lawful act with due care, causes an injury
by mere accident without fault or intention of causing it.
e. Any person who acts under the compulsion of an irresistible force.
f. Any person who acts under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of an equal or
greater injury.
g. Any person who fails to perform an act required by law, when prevented by
some lawful or insuperable cause.

A. Imbecility and Insanity (Art. 12 par. 1)

Imbecile is exempt in all cases from criminal liability, while the insane is
not exempt if it can be shown he acted during a lucid interval. During lucid interval,
the insane acts with intelligence.
An imbecile is one who, while advance in age, has a mental development
comparable to that of children between two and seven years of age. An imbecile within

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the meaning of Art. 12, is one who is deprived completely of reason of discernment
and freedom of the will at the time of committing the crime.
Cases similar or analogous to Imbecility or Insanity
Even if a person is not insane or imbecile, if he is completely deprived of the
consciousness of his acts when he commits the crime, he is entitled to exemption for a
cause analogous to imbecility or insanity. So one committing a crime while dreaming
during sleep or in a state of somnambulism or sleep walking or from high fever due to
malignant malaria is not criminally liable as the acts are embraced within the plea of
insanity.

B. Minority
SECTION 6 of RA 9344 (Juvenile Justice Act) provides:
“Section 6. Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility
- A child fifteen (15) years of age or under at the time of the commission of the
offense shall be exempt from criminal liability/ However, the child shall be
subject to an intervention program pursuant to Section 20 of this Act.

- A child above fifteen ( 15) year but below eighteen (18) years of age shall
likewise be exempt from criminal liability and be subjected to intervention
program, unless he/she acted with discernment, in which case, such child
shall be subject to the appropriate proceedings in accordance with this Act.

C. Accident
An accident is any happening beyond the control of a person the consequences
of which are not foreseeable, if foreseeable, there is fault or culpa.
The elements of accident as an exempting circumstance are:
a. performance of a lawful act
b. with due care
c causes injury to another by mere accident
d. without any fault or intention of causing it

D. Compulsion of Irresistible Force

The irresistible force must be physical and must come from a third person. It
cannot spring primarily form the offender himself.

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 The force must be irresistible to reduce him to a mere instrument who acts not
only without will but against his will.
E. Impulse of Uncontrollable Fear
The fear must be insuperable and he who acts under insuperable fear is
completely deprived of freedom. Its elements are: (a) the thereat which caused the fear
was of an evil greater than, or at least equal to, that which the accused was required to
commit, and (b) it promised an evil of such gravity and imminence that the ordinary man
would have succumbed to it.
The threat producing the insuperable threat must be grave, actual, serious and
such kind that the majority of men would have succumbed to such compulsion.
Duress as a valid defense should eb real, imminent or reasonable fear for one’s
life or limb and not speculative, fanciful or remote fear.
So if one is compelled under fear of death to join the rebels, he is not liable for
rebellion because he acted under the impulse of uncontrollable fear of an equal or
greater injury.

Distinctions between uncontrollable fear and irresistible force

Irresistible Force Uncontrollable Fear
Physical force coming from a stranger Is an impulse coming from within the
person of the actor himself
The actor acts without a will The actor acts not against his will but
because he is endangered by the fear
Both refers to external influences and not Both refers to external influences and not
to psychological need to psychological need

F. Insuperable or Lawful Causes

This exempting circumstance applies to felonies committed by omission.
The law imposes a duty on the part of the offender to perform an act, If he fails to
do so, he violates the law, But if the failure is due to a lawful or insuperable cause, he is
criminally exempt.
Example:
The failure of a policeman to deliver the prisoner lawfully arrested to the judicial
authorities within the prescribed period because it was not possible to do with practical
dispatch as the prisoner was arrested in a distant place would constitute a non-
performance of duty due to an insuperable cause.

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Aside from the exempting circumstances mentioned above, instigation and absolutory
causes also produce exemption from criminal liability.

Instigation
- It takes place when a peace officer induces a person to commit a crime.
Without the inducement, the crime would not be committed. Hence, it is
exempting by reason of public policy. Otherwise, the peace officer would be a
co-principal.
The person instigating must not be a private person as he will be liable as
principal by inducement. If a policeman induced a person to import opium which
made him believe he would buy and when the opium imported was delivered, he
made the arrest, there is an instigation. Without the inducement the opium would
not have been imported.

Instigation Distinguished from Entrapment

Entrapment signifies the ways and means devised by a peace officer to entrap or
apprehend a person who committed a crime. Even without the entrapment, the crime
has been committed already.

Absolutory Causes
In absolutory causes, the act committed constitutes a crime but the law doesn’t
punish the offender for reason of public policy and sentiment.
Some of the absolutory causes are as follows:
a. Art. 6, par. 3 -spontaneous desistance during the attempted stage of felony.
b. Art. 7- Light felonies are not punishable unless consummated except in crimes
against persons or property.(example: theft of property having a value of 5.00 and the
offender is actuated by hunger or poverty.
c. Art. 16. Accessories are not liable in light felonies.
d.Art. 247- Physical injuries other than serious physical injuries inflicted under
exceptional circumstances

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 e. Art. 332-Exemption of certain persons form criminal liability in crimes of theft,
estafa and malicious mischief.

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