Article 114. Treason refers to betrayals of one’s country by helping its enemy.

 Treason is one of the exceptions of the principle of territoriality under RPC.

3 Elements

1. Offender is a Filipino or resident alien;

 Provides for person liable for the crime treason, must be a Filipino citizen or the person who
owes allegiance to Republic of Philippines.

 Punishment - shall be punished by Reclusion Perpetua to death and shall pay a fine
not to exceed Four million pesos (P4, 000,000).
 No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of
two (2) witnesses at least to the same overt act or on confession of
the accused in open court.

 Likewise, an alien, residing in the Philippines, who commits act of

treason (as defined in paragraph 1 of this article) shall be punished by
reclusion temporal to death and shall pay a fine not to exceed Four
million pesos (P4, 000,000). (Act No. 3815, Revised Penal Code)

Allegiance- refers to the obligation of fidelity and obedience to Republic of Phil., in exchange of
protections which the country gives you.

There are two types of allegiance

 We have a PERMANENT allegiance here in the Philippines

 The TEMPORARY allegiance in residents alien.

2. There is a war in which the Philippines is involved;

There is no need for a formal declaration of war as long as there is an actual hostility involving the
Philippines and other country.

3. Offender either – The overt acts or the ways of committing treason

(a) levies war against the government

 Actual assembly of man – the people form a group to destroyed the government
 The intention of organized group is to overthrow the government

(b) adheres to the enemies,

Intentionally and emotionally favoring the enemy

(B) giving them aid or comfort within the Philippines

Giving foods, information to an enemy that may be detrimental to our Filipino soldiers.
TREASON can be proved in two ways

 Testifying the two witnesses – must be on the same overt acts.

 Thru judicial confession - The offender confess to the commission of crime in an open court.
 Treason is one of the exceptions of territoriality under RPC

Article 116. Misprision of Treason is the failure to perform a public duty.

3Elements

1. Offender owes allegiance to the government, and not a foreigner;

 Misprision of treason cannot be committed by a resident alien.

2. He has knowledge of conspiracy to commit treason against the government;

 When the treason is already consummated and he concealed the knowledge, he is not liable
for the misprision of treason.

3. He conceals or does not disclose and make known the same as soon as possible to the:

 If we knew anything, we were going to disclose to them.

 Governor
 Fiscal of the province
 Mayor or
 Fiscal of the city in which he resides.

Is imprison of treason committed in war times only? NO

 Either in times of WAR and in times of PEACE.
 You might have heard about their plan even before the war.

Penalty:
Article 116 provides that person committing misprision of treason shall be punished as an
accessory to the crime of treason.

 The term accessory to the crime of treason refers only to the penalty to be imposed, not to
the person who acted subsequent to the commission of the offense.

Art.116 is an exception of to the rule that mere silence does not make a person criminally liable.
While in treason, even aliens can commit said crime because of the amendment to the article, no
such amendment was made in misprision of treason. Misprision of treason is a crime that may be
committed only by citizens of the Philippines. The essence of the crime is that there are persons who
conspire to commit treason and the offender knew this and failed to make the necessary report to
the government within the earliest possible time. What is required is to report it as soon as possible.
The criminal liability arises if the treasonous activity was still at the conspiratorial stage. Because if
the treason already erupted into an overt act, the implication is that the government is already
aware of it. There is no need to report the same. This is a felony by omission although committed
with dolo, not with culpa. The persons mentioned in Article 116 are not limited to mayor, fiscal or
governor. Any person in authority having equivalent jurisdiction, like a provincial commander, will
already negate criminal liability. Whether the conspirators are parents or children, and the ones who
learn the conspiracy is a parent or child, they are required to report the same. The reason is that
although blood is thicker than water so to speak, when it comes to security of the state, blood
relationship is always subservient to national security. Article 20 does not apply here because the
persons found liable for this crime are not considered accessories; they are treated as principals. In
the 1994 bar examination, a problem was given with respect to misprision of treason. The text of the
provision simply refers to a conspiracy to overthrow the government. The examiner failed to note
that this crime can only be committed in times of war. The conspiracy adverted to must be
treasonous in character. In the problem given, it was rebellion. A conspiracy to overthrow the
government is a crime of rebellion because there is no war. Under the Revised Penal Code, there is
no crime of misprision of rebellion.