TITLE I: Chapter One - Felonies and Circumstances which

affect Criminal Liability

FELONIES AND CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH AFFECT CRIMINAL LIABILITY 

Chapter One FELONIES

This Code [Act No.3815] took effect on January 1, 1932. This Code is called “Revised Penal Code”
because the Committee which was created by Administrative Order No. 94 of the Department of
Justice, dated October 18, 1927, was instructed to revise the old Penal Code, taking into
considerations, the special penal laws and the rulings laid down by the Supreme Court. The following
are the sources of the Philippine Criminal Law: (1) The Revised Penal Code (Act. No. 385) and its
amendments (2) Special penal laws passed by the Philippine Commission, Philippine Assembly,
Philippine Legislature, National Assembly, the Congress of the Philippines and the Batasang
Pambansa (3) Penal Presidential Decrees issued during Martial Law. 

The State has the authority, under its police power, to define and punish crimes and to lay down the
rules of criminal procedure. States as part of its police power, has a large measure of discretion in
creating and defining criminal offenses. 

The Bill of Rights of the 1987 Constitution imposes the following limitations on the power of the law
making body to enact penal legislations, (1) No ex post facto law or bill of attainder shall be enacted.
(2) No person shall be heard to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law.

Characteristics of criminal law. Criminal law has three main characteristics: (1) general, (2)
territorial, and (3) prospective. 

I. GENERAL, in that criminal law is binding on all persons who live or sojourn in the Philippine
territory. 

II. TERRITORIAL, in that criminal laws undertake to punish crimes committed within Philippine
territory. 

III. PROSPECTIVE, in that a penal law cannot make an act punishable in a manner in which it was
not punishable when committed. 

Felonies are committed not only be means of deceit (dolo) but also by means of fault (culpa). There
is a deceit when the act performed is performed with deliberate intent; and there is fault when the
wrongful act results from imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight of lack of skill. 

The elements of felonies in general are: (1) There must be an act or omission, (2) That the act or
omission must be punishable by the Revised Penal Code, (3) That the act is performed or the
omission incurred by means of or culpa. Only external act is punished. The act must be external,
because internal acts are beyond the sphere of penal law. Hence a criminal thought or a mere
intention, no matter how immoral or improper it may be, will never constitute a felony. Meaning of
the word “omission.” By omission is meant inaction, the failure to perform a positive duty which one
is bound to do. There must be law requiring the doing or performance of an act. The omission must
be punishable by law because there is no law that punishes a person who does not report to the
authorities the commission of the crime which he witnessed, the omission to do so is not a felony. 

Pre-Activity

Questions:

1. When are the provisions of the Revised Penal Code applicable?

2. How does the provisions of the Revised Penal Code applicable?

Read and understand comprehensively the scenario below.

Scenario:

 Pedro a hunter, who seemed to have seen with his lantern something like the eyes of a deer about
fifty meters from him and then shot it, but much to his surprise, on approaching what he thought was
a deer, it proved to be his companion Juan who died as a result.

1. Is Pedro liable for the death of Juan? Why or Why not?

Analysis:   Based on the above scenario with the application of Title One, Chapter 1 of Revised
Penal Code, kindly answer the following questions diligently.

1. What possible crime committed by Juan? Explain.

2. Explain the Latin maxim “nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege.”