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MODULE 7
PENALTIES IN GENERAL
LESSON 1
CLASSIFICATION OF PENALTIES
PENALTY
Penalty is the sufferingthat is inflicted by the State for the transgression of a law.
CONCEPT OF PENALTY
Penalty in its general sense signifies pain; especially considered in the juridical
sphere, it means suffering undergone, because of the action of the society, by one who
commits a crime.
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a) PREVENTION – The State must punish the criminal to prevent or suppress the
danger o the State arising from the criminal acts of the offender.
b) SELF-DEFENSE – The State has a right to punish the criminal as a measure of self-
defense so as to protect society from the threat and wrong inflicted by the criminal.
c) REFORMATION – The object of punishment in criminal cases is to correct and
reform the offender.
d) EXEMPLARITY – The criminal is punished to serve as an example to deter others
from committing crimes.
e) 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.
The Constitution directs that “excessive fines shall not be imposed, nor cruel and
unusual punishment inflicted.”
ART.21. Penalties that may be imposed – No felony shall be punishable by any penalty
not prescribed by the law prior to its commission.
The provisions of Art. 21 can only be invoked when the Revised Penal Code for the
reason that for every felony defined in the Code a penalty has been prescribed.
Art.21 is not a penal provision. It neither defines a crime nor provides a punishment
for one.
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Art.22. RETOACTIVE EFFECT OF PENAL LAWS – Penal laws shall have a retroactive
effect in so far as they favor the person guilty f a felony, who is not a habitual criminal, as
this term ids defined in Rule 5 of Article 62 of this Code, although at the time of the
publication of such laws a final sentence has been pronounced and the convict is serving the
same.
The exeption applies to a law dealing with prescription of crime. Art. 22 applies to a
law dealing with prescription of an offense which is intimately connected with that of the
penalty, for the length of time prescription depends upon the gravity of the offense.
An act which when committed was not a crime cannot be made so by statute without
violating the constitutional inhibitation as to ex post facto laws. An ex post facto law is one
which:
Makes criminal an act done before passing 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 that 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 required 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.
The provisions of this article are applicable even to special laws which provide
favorable conditions to the accused.
Article 366 is the application of laws enacted prior to hisw code while the Article 22 is
te retroactive effect pf penal laws. These two articles mean that while felonies and
misdemeanors committed prior to the date of effectiveness of the Revised Penal Code shall
be punished in accordance with the Code or Acts in force at the time of thier commission,
the same should not be the case if such Code or Acts are unfavorable to the guilty party, for
the general principle on the retroactivity of favorable penal laws, recognized in Art. 22,
should then apply.
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The jurisdiction of the courts in criminal cases ids determined by the allegations
by the complaint or information, and not by the findings the court may make after trial.
Article 23. Effect of pardon by the offended party- A pardon by the offended
party does not extinguish criminal actions except as provided in Article 344 of this Code;
but civil liability with regard to the interest of the injured party is extinguished by his
express waive.
Article 25. Penalties which may be imposed. – The penalties which may
imposed, according to this Code, and their different classes, are those included in the
following:
SCALE
A. PRINCIPAL PENALTIES
1. Capital punishment:
Death
2. Afflictive penalties:
Reclusion perpetua
Reclusion temporal
Perpetual or temporary absolute disqualification
Perpetual or temporary special disqualification
3. Correctional penalties
Prision correctional
Arresto mayor
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Suspension
Destiero
4. Light penalties
Arresto menor
Public censure
Fine, and
Bond to keep the peace.
B. ACCESSORY PENALTIES
1. Divisible - those that have fixed duration and are divisible into three
periods.
Death
Reclusion perpetua
Perpetual absolute or special disqualification
Public censure
1. Corporal (death)
2. Deprivation of freedom (reclusion, prision, arresto)
3. Restriction of freedom (destierro)
4. Deprivation of rights (disqualification and suspension)
5. Pecuniary (fine)
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1. Capital
2. Afflictive
3. Correctional
4. Light
Art. 26. Fine – When afflictive, correctional, or light penalty. – A fine, whether
imposed ass a single or as an alternative penalty, shall be considered an afflictive penalty, it
it exceeds 6,000 pesos; a correctional penalty, if it does not exceed 6,000 pesos but is not
less than 200 pesos; and a loght penalty, if it be less than 200 pesos.
Fine is:
LESSON 2
Art. 27. Reclusion Perpetua – Th penalty of reclusion perpetua shall be from twenty
years and one day to forty years.
Reclusion temporal – The penalty of reclusion temporal shall be from twelve years
and one day to twenty years.
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Arresto mayor. – The duration of the penalty of arresto mayor shall be from one
month and one day to six months.
Arresto menor – The duration of the penalty of arresto menor shall be from one day
to thirty days .
Bond to keep peace – The bond to keep the peace shall be required to cover such
period of time as the court may determine.
Art. 28. Computation of penalties. – If the offender shall be in prison, the term of
the duration of the temporary penalties shall be computed from the day on which the
judgment of conviction shall have becoame final.
If the offender be not in prison, the term of the duration of the penalty consisting of
deprivation of liberty shall be computed from the day that the offender is placed at the
disposal of the judicial authorities for the enforcement of the penalty. The duration of the
other penalties shall be computed only from the day ofn which the defendant commences to
serve his sentence.
1. When they are recidivists, or have been convicted previously twice or more times
of any crime; and
2. When upon being summoned for the execution of their sentence they have failed
to surrender voluntarily.
If the detention prisoner does not agree to abide byt he same diciplinary rules
imposed upon convicted prisoners, he shall be credited in the service of his sentence with
four-fifths of the time during which he has undergone prevntive imprisonment.
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1. The deprivation of the public offices and employments which the offender
may have held, even if conferred by popular election.
2. The deprivation of the right to vote in any election for any popular elective
office or to be elected to such office.
3. The disqualification for the offices or public employments and for the exercise
of any of the rights memtioned.
4. The loss of all rights to retirement pay or other pension for any office formerly
held.
Art. 33. Effects of the penalties of suspension from any public office,
profession, or calling, or the right of suffrage.- The suspension from any public office,
profession, or calling, or the right of suffrage shall disqualify the offender from holding such
office or exercising such profession or calling o right of suffrage during the term of the
sentence.
Art. 34. Civil Intediction. - Civil interdiction shall derive the offender during the time
of his sentence of the rights of the parental authority, or gaudianship, either as to the person
or propery of any ward, or marital authority, of the right to manage his property, and of the
right to dispose of such property by act or any conveyance inter vivos.
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Art. 35. Effects of bonds to keep the peace. – It shall be the duty of any person
sentenced to give bond to keep the peace, to prevent two sufficient sureties who shall
undertake that such person will not commit the offense sought to be prevented , and that in
case such offense may be committed they will pay the amount determined by the court in its
judgment, or otherwise to deposit such amount in the office of the clerk of court to guarantee
said undertaking.
Art. 36. Pardon; its efects. – A pardon shall not work the restorationof the right to
hold public office, or the right of suffrage, unless such rights be expressly restored by the
terms of the pardon.
1. A pardon shall not restore the right to hiold public office or the right of suffrage.
2. It shall not exempt the culprit from the payment of the civil indemnity. The pardon
cannot make exception to this rule.
Art. 37. Costs – What are included. – Costs shall include fees and indemnities in the
course of the judicial proceedings, whether thay be fixed or unalterable amounts previously
determined by law or regulations in force, or amounts not subject to schedule.
1. Fees, and
2. Indemnities, in the course of judicial proceedings.
Art. 38. Pecuniary liabilites – Order of payment. – In case of the project of the
offender should not be suffiicent for the payment of all his pscuniay liabilities, the same shall
be met in the following order:
Art. 39. Subsidiary penalty. – If the convict has no property with which to meet the
fine mentioned in paragraph 3 of the next preceding Article, he shall be subject to a
subsidiary personal liability at the rate of one day for each eight pesos , subject to the
following rules.
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Act No. 1732 of the Philippine Commission provides for the rules in case the
court shall impose a fine as the whole or as a part of the epunishment for any
criminal offense made punishable by any special law.
RULES:
1. When the court merely imposes a fine, the subsidiary liability shall not
exceed 6 months, at the rate of one day of imprisonment for every
P2.50.00.
2. In case both fine and imprisonment are imposed, the subsidiary
liability shall not exceed 1/3 of the term of imprisonment, and in no
case shall it exceed 1 year.
3. In case the imprisonment is for more than 6 years in addition to a fine,
there shall be no subsidiary imprisonment.
4. When a fine is imposed for violation of any municipal ordinance or
ordinances of the City of Manila, the rate is one day for every P1.00,
until the fine is satisfied, provided that the total subsidiary
imprisonment does not exceed 6 months, if the penalty imposed is fine
alone, and not more than 1/3 of the principal penalty, if it is imposed
together with imprisonment.
Art. 40. Death – Its accessory penalties. The death penalty, when it is not excuted by
reason of commutation or pardon shall carry with it that of perpetual absolute
disqualificationof that of civil interdiction during thirty years following the date of sentence,
unless such accessory penalties ahe been expressly remitted in the pardon.
Art. 41. Reclusion perpetua and reclusion temporal – Their accessory penalties.
– The penaltiesof reclusion perpetua and reclusion temporal shall carry with them that of
civil interdiction for life or during ther period of the sentence as the case may be, and that of
perpetual absolute disqualification which the offender shall suffer even though pardoned as
to the principal penalty, unless the same shall have been expreslly remiited in the pardon.
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Art. 42. Prision mayor – Its accessory penalties. – The penalty of prision mayor
shall carry with it that of temporary absolute disqualification and that of perpetual special
disqualification fom the right of suffrage which the offender shall suffer although pardoned as
to the principal penalty, unless the same shall have been expressly remitted in the pardon.
Art. 43. Prision correctional – Its accessory penalties.- The penalty of prision
correctional shall be carry with it that of suspension from public office, from the right to follow
a profession or calling, and that of perpetual special disqualification from the right to
suffrage, if the duration of said imprisonment shall exceed eighteen months. The offender
shall suffer the disqualification provided in this article although pardon as to the principal
penalty, unless the same shall have been expressly remitted in the pardon.
Art. 44. Arresto. – Its accessory penalties. – The penalty of arresto shall carry with it
that of suspension of the right to hold office and the right of suffrage during the term of the
sentence.
Art. 45. Confiscation and forfeiture of the proceeds or instruments of the crime.
– Every penalty imposed for the commission of a felony shall carry with it the forfeiture of the
proceeds of the crime and the instruments or tolls with which it was committed.
Such proceeds and instruments or tools shall be confiscsted and forfeited in favor of
the Government, unless they be the property of a third person not liable for the offense, but
those articles whcih are not subject of lawful commerce shall be destroyed.
SECTION ONE- Rules for the appliction of penalties to the persons criminally liable
and for the graduation of the same.
Whenever the law prescribes a penalty for a felony in general terms, it shall be
understood as applicable to the consummated felony.
General Rule: The penalty prescribed by law in general terms shall be imposed.
Exeption – When the law fixex a penalty for frustrated or attemted felony.
Art. 47. In what cases the death penalty shall not be imposed; Automatic
review of death penalty cases. – The death penalty shall be imposed in all cases in which
it must be imposed under existing laws, except when the guilty person is below (18) years of
age at the time of the commission of the crime or is more than seventy years of age or when
upon appeal or automatic review of the case by the Supreme Courts, the required majority
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vote is not obtained for the imposition of death, in which cases the penalty shall be reclusion
perpetua.
Art. 48. Penalty for complex crimes. – When a single act constitutes two or more
grave or less grave felonies, or when an offense is a necessary means for committing the
other, the penalty for the most serious crime shall be imposed, the same to be applied in its
maximun period.
Kinds of Plurality
Art. 49. Penalty to be imposed upon the principals when the crime committed
ids differen from the intended. - In cases in which the felony committed i different from
that which the offender intended to commit.
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Art. 59. Penalty to be imposed in case of failure to commit the crime because
the means employed or the aims sought are impossible. – When the person intending to
commit an offense has already performed the acts for the execution of the same but
nevetheless the crime was not produced by reason of the fact that the act intended was by
its nature one of ipossible accomplishment or because the means employed by such person
are essentially inadequate to produce the result desired by him, the court, having in mind the
social danger and the degree of criminality shown by the ofender , shall impose upon him
the penalty of arresto mayor or a fine ranging from 200 to 500 pesos.
Art. 61. Rules for graduating penalties. – For the purpose of graduating he
penalties which, according to the provisions of Art. 50-57 , inclusive of this Code , are to be
imposed upon persons guilty as principals of any frustrated or attempted felony, or as
accomplices or accessories.
SECTION TWO: Rules for the application of penalties with regard to the mitigating
and agravating circumstances, and habitual delinquency.
Par. 2.- The same rule applies with respect to aggravting circumstancs which are
inherent in the crime.
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.
Par.3. – Aggravating or mitigating circumstances which arise from (1) the moral attirbutes
of the offender, (2) from his private relations with the ofended party, or (3) from any other
personal cause, serve tp aggravate or mitigate the liability of the principal, accomplices
and accessories as to whom such circumstances are attendant
Par. 4. – Th circumtances which consist (1) in the material execution of the act,
(2) in the means employed to accomplish it, shall serve to aggravtae ot mitigate the
liability of those persons only who had knowledge of them at the time of the execution of
the act or their cooperation therein.
Par. 5. – A person is habitual delinquent if within a periodof ten years from the
date of his (last) release or last conviction of the crimes of (1) serious or less serious
physical injuries, (2) robo, (3) hurto, (4) estafa, or (5) falsification , he is found guilty of
any of said crimes a third time or oftener.
1. That the offendr had been convicted of any of the crimes of serious or less serious
physical injuries, robbery, theft, estafa or falsification.
2. That after that conviction of after serving his sentence, he again committed, and,
within ten years from his release or first conviction, he was again convited of any of the said
crimes of the second time.
3. That after his conviction of, or after servig the sentence for, the second offense,
he again committed, and, within 10 years from his last release or last conviction, he was
again convicted of any of said offenses, the third time or oftener.
Art. 63. Rules for the application of indivisible penalties. – In all casesin which
the law prescribes a single indivisible penalty,it shall be applid by the courts regarless of any
mitigating or aggravating circumstances that may have attended the commission of the
deed.
Art. 64. – Rules for the application of penalties which contain three periods. –
In cases in which the penalties prescribed by the law contain three periods , whether it be a
single divisible penalty or composed of three ddifferent penalties, each one of which forms a
period in accordance with the provisions of articles 76 and 77, the courts shall observe for
the application of the penalty of the following rules, according to whether there are or are no
itgating or aggravating circumstances.
Art. 65. Rules in cases in which the penalty is not composed of three periods. –
In cases in which the penalty prescribed by law is not composed of three periods, the courts
shall apply the rules contained in the foregoing articlesd, dividing into three equal portions
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the time included in the penalty prescribed, and forming one period of each of the three
portions.
Art. 66. Imposition of fines. – In imposing fines he courts may fix any amount within
the limits established by law; in fixing the amount in each case attention shall be given, not
only to the mitigating and aggravating ircumstances, but more particularly to the wealth or
means of the culprit.
Art. 67. Penalty to be imposed when not all the requisites of exemption of the
fourth circumstance of Art. 12 are present. – When all the conditions required in
circumstance number 4 of art. 12 of this Code to exmpt from criminal liability are notpresent,
the penalty od arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision corrctional in its minimum
period shall be imposed upon the culprit, if he shall have been guilty of a grave felony, and
arresto mayor in its minimum and meduim periods, if of a less grave felony.
Art. 68. – Penalty to be imposed upon a person under eighteen years of age.-
When he offender is a monor under eighteen years and his cse is one coming under the
provisions of the paragraph next to the last of Article 80 of thiss Code, the following rules
shall be observed.
Art. 69. Penalty to be imposed when the crime committed is not wholly
excusable. – A penalty lower by one or two degrees than that prescribed by the law shall
be imposedif the deed is not wholly excusable by reason of the lack of some of the
conditions required to justify the same or to exempt from criminal liability in the several
cases mentioned in Articles 11 and 12 provided that the majority of such conditions be
present. The courts shall impose the penalty in the period which may be deemed proper, in
view of the number and nature of the conditons of exemption present or lacking.
Art. 70. Successive service of sentencs. – When the culprit has to servee two or
more penalties, he shall serve them simultanoeusly if the nature of the penalties will so
permit.
3. The absorption system ( the lesser penalties are absorbed by the graver
penalties).
Art. 71. Graduated scales. – In the cases in which the law prescribes a penaly lower
or higher by one or more degrees than another given penalty, the rules prescribed in Article
61 shall be observed in graduating such penalty.
Art. 72. Preference in the payment of the civil liabilities.- The civil liabilities of a
person found guilty of two or more offenses shall be satisfied by following the chronological
order of the dates of the final judgments rendered against him, beginning with the first in
order of time.
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ART 74. Penalty higher than reclusion perpetua in certain cases.- In cases in
which the law prescribes a penalty higher than another given penalty, without specifically
designating the name of the former, if such hiher penalty should be that of death, the same
penalty and the accessory penalties of Article 40, shall be considered as the next higher
penalty.
Art. 75. Increasing or reducing the penalty of fine by one or more degrees.-
Whenever it may be necesary to increase or reduce the penalty of fine by one or more
degrees, it shall be imcreased or reduce, respectively, for each degree, by one-fourth of the
maximum amount prescribed by law, without however, changing the minimum.
The same rules shall be observed with regard to fines that do not consist of a fixed
amount, but are ,made proportional.
Art. 76. Legal period of duration of divisible penalties.- The legal period of
duration of divisible penalties shall be considered as divided into three parts, forming three
periods, the minimum, the medium, and the maximum in the manner shown in the following
table.
Art. 77. When the penalty is a complex one composed of three distinct
penalties.- In cases in which the law prescribes a penalty composed of three distinct
penalties, each one shall form a period; the lightest of them shall be the minimum. The next
the medium, and the most severe the maximum period.
Whenever the penalty prescribed does not have one of the forms specially provided
for in this Code, the period shall be distributed, applying by analogy the prescribed rules.
LESSON 3
Art. 78. When and how apenalty is to be executed. – No penalty shall be executed
except by virtue of a final judgment.
Art. 79. Suspension of the excution and service of the penalties in case of
insanity. – When a convict shall become insane or an imbecile after final sentence has
been pronounced, the execution of dsaid sntence shall be suspended only with regard to the
personal penalty, the provisions of the second paragraph of circumstance number 1 of
Article 12 being observed in the corresponding cases.
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YOUTHFUL OFFENDER – ia a minor who is over nine (9) years but under eighteen
(18) years of age at the time of the commission of the offense.
Art. 81. When and how the deah penaly is to be executed. - The death sentence
shall be executed with preference to any other penalty and shall consist in putting the person
under sentence to death by lethal injection. The death sentence shall be executed under the
authority of the Director of the Bureau of Corrections, endeavoring so far as possible to
mitigate the sufferings of the person under entence during the lethal injection as well as
during the proceedings prior to the execution.
Art. 82. Notification and execution of the sentence and assistance to the
culprit. – The court shall designate a working day for the execution, but not the hour thereof;
and such designation shall not be communicated to the offender before sunrise of the said
day, and the execution shall not takes place until after the expiration of at least eight
hoursfollowing the notification , but before sunset.
Art. 83. Suspension of the execution of the death sentence. – The death
sentence shall not be inflicted upon a woman within one (1) year after deliviery, nor upon
aany person over seventy years of age. In this last case, the death sentence shall be
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commuted to the penalty of reclusion perpetua with he accessory penalties provided in Art.
40.
Regional Trial Court which imposes death penalty has the power to suspend
temporarily the execution of the sentence, after the judgment has become final, and after the
date has been fixed for execution, upon petition on behalf of the prisoner, based upon
grounds arising after judgment has become final, the adjudication of which does not
challenge the validity of the judgment or invovle a revioew or reconsideration of the
proceedings.
Art.84. Place of execution and persons who may witness the same.- The
execution shall take place in the penitentiary or bilibid in a space closed to the public view
and shall be witnessed only by the priests assisting the offender and by his lawyers and by
his relatives, not exceeding six, if he so requests, by the physician and the necessary
personnel of the penal establishment, and by such persons as the Director of Prisons may
authorize.
Art.85. Provision relative to the corpse of the person executed and its burial.-
Unless claimed by his family, the corpse of the culprit shall, upon the completion of the legal
proceedings subsequent to the execution, to be turned over to the institute of learning or
scientific research first applying for it, dor the purpose of the study and investigation,
provided that such institute shall take charge of the decent burial of the remains.
Art. 87. Destierro. – Any person sentenced to destierro shall not be permitted to enter
the place or places designated in the ssentence, nor within the radius therein specified,
which shall be not more than 250 and not less than 25 kilometers from the place designated.
Art. 88. – Arresto menor. – The penalty of arresto menor shall be served in the
municipal jail, or in the house of the defendant himself under the surveillance of an officer of
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the law, when the court so provides in its decision, taking into consideration the health of the
offender and othr reasons which may seemsatisfactory to it.
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NAME: ________________________________
ACTIVITY
INSTRUCTION: Read the questions carefully and answer them briefly. A mere Yes or No
answers will not be given any points. Use the attachedanswer sheet for your answer.
A rape case was filed by AAAA, a 5 year old girl against Lolo YY but it was only filed
10 years after the alleged incident. After presentation of evidence, the Honorable Court
found Lolo YY guilty beyond reasonable with an imposes penalty of death. Was the imposed
penalty correct? Why?
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NAME: ________________________________
ACTIVITY
INSTRUCTION: Read the questions carefully and answer them briefly. A mere Yes or No
answers will not be given any points. Use the attachedanswer sheet for your answer.
Tana was a working student and she was assigned in the library, one day, while
fixing the books, she noticed a wallet with P10, 000.00, since Tana noticed that there were
no students in the library, she kept it in her bag without considering the CCTV. After three
weeks, Tammy informed the librarian that he lost his wallet, Tana immediately returned it. If
Tammy will file a case against Tana, will you consider the act of the latter to lessen her
penalty? why?
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NAME: ________________________________
ACTIVITY
INSTRUCTION: Read the questions carefully and answer them briefly. A mere Yes or No
answers will not be given any points. Use the attachedanswer sheet for your answer.
Juanito was the spouse of Marina, they have been together for 10 years. When
Juanito was assigned in Masbate because he was a Security Guard, Marina found a new
love with Antonio. When Juanito learned the iĺlicit affair, he went home and without any
warning, he mauled Marina until she suffered injuries. Marina pleads for protection from the
persons in authority in order for Juanito to stay away from while she was preparing for the
cases to be file. What is the proper penalty to be imposed against Juanito in the scenario?
Why?
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REFERENCE:
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