IMPORTANT PROVISION ON PENALTIES

Art. 60. Exceptions to the rules established in Articles 50 to 57.

— The provisions contained in Articles 50 to 57, inclusive, of t h is Code shall not be applicable t
o c a s e s in w h i c h t h e l aw expressly prescribes t h e penalty provided for a frustrated or attempted
felony, or to be imposed upon accomplices or a c c e s s o r i e s.

Arts. 50 to 57 do not apply when the law expressly prescribes the penalty for a frustrated or
attempted felony or to be imposed upon accomplices or accessories.

Thus, when on the occasion or in consequence of an attempted or frustrated robbery, the

offender commits a homicide, the law provides in Art. 297 that the special penalty of reclusion temporal
in its maximum period to reclusion perpetua shall be imposed upon the offender.

Were it not for this provision in Art. 60, the penalty to be imposed would be reclusion temporal
which is the penalty next lower in degree than reclusion perpetua to death, the penalty for
consummated offense of robbery with homicide.

Because of the enormity of the offense of attempted or frustrated robbery with homicide, the
law provides a special penalty therefor.

Accomplice, punished as principal.

Again, under the general rule, an accomplice is punished by a penalty one degree lower than the
penalty imposed upon the principal. But in two cases, the Code punishes an accomplice with the same
penalty imposed upon the principal. They are:

1. The ascendants, guardians, curators, teachers and any person who by abuse of authority or
confidential relationship, shall cooperate as accomplices in the crimes of rape, acts of
lasciviousness, seduction, corruption of minors, white slave trade or abduction. (Art. 346)
2. One who furnished the place for the perpetration of the crime of slight illegal detention. (Art.
268)

Furnishing the place for the perpetration of the crime is ordinarily the act of an accomplice.

Accessory punished as principal.

Knowingly concealing certain evil practices is ordinarily an act of the accessory, but in Art. 142,
such act is punished as the act of the principal.

Certain accessories are punished with a penalty one degree lower, instead of two degrees.

In certain crimes, the participation of the offender is that of an accessory because he

perpetrates the act after someone has committed counterfeiting or falsification. But the penalty for the
act perpetrated is one degree lower instead of two degrees lower in the following
crimes:
1. Knowingly using counterfeited seal or forged signature or stamp of the President. (Art. 162)
2. Illegal possession and use of a false treasury or bank note. (Art. 168)
3. Using a falsified document. (Art. 173, par. 3)
4. Using a falsified dispatch. (Art. 173, par. 2)