MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES

1. Incomplete Justification and Exemption

2. Under 18 or Over 70 years of age
3. No intention to commit so grave a wrong
4. Sufficient Provocation or Threat
5. Immediate vindication of a grave offense
6. Passion or obfuscation
7. Voluntary surrender
8. Voluntary plea of guilt
9. Plea to a lower offense
10. Physical defect
11. Illness
12. Analogous Circumstances
Mitigating circumstances or causas attenuates - if present in the commission of the
crime, do not entirely free the actor from criminal liability, but serve only to reduce the
penalty.
Basis: They are based on the diminution of 1) either freedom of action, 2) intelligence
or intent or on the 3) lesser perversity of the offender.

INCOMPLETE JUSTIFYING OR EXEMPTING CIRCUMSTANCES

Not all the requisites necessary to justify the act or to exempt from criminal liability are
attendant:
1. Self-defense [Art. 11, par. 1]
2. Defense of relatives [Art. 11, par. 2]
3. Defense of strangers [Art. 11, par. 3]
4. State of necessity [Art. 11, par. 4]
5. Performance of duty [Art. 11, par. 5]
6. Obedience to the order of superiors [Art. 11, par. 6]
7. Minority over 15 years of age but below 18 years of age [Art. 12, par. 3]
8. Causing injury by mere accident [Art. 12, par.4]
9. Uncontrollable fear [Art. 12 par. 6]

Incomplete justifying circumstances:

a. Incomplete self-defense, defense of relatives, defense of stranger
UNLAWFUL AGGRESSION, as an indispensable requisite must always be present..
Par. 1 of Art. 13 is applicable only when
1. There is unlawful aggression
2. other 2 requisites are not present in any of the cases
Note: When two of the three requisites mentioned are present, the case must be
considered as a privileged mitigating circumstance under Art. 69 of the Code. Article 69
requires that a majority of the conditions required must be present.
b. Incomplete justifying circumstance of avoidance of greater evil or injury
Requisites:
a) That the evil sought to be avoided actually exists;
b) That the injury feared be greater than that done to avoid it;
c) That there be no other practical and less harmful means of preventing it.
If any of the last two requisites is lacking, there is only a mitigating circumstance. The
first element is indispensable.
c. Incomplete justifying circumstance of performance of duty
Requisites:
1. performance of a duty or in the lawful exercise of a right or office; and
2. injury or offense be the necessary consequence of the due performance of duty or
the lawful exercise of such right or office.

Incomplete exempting circumstances:

a. Incomplete exempting circumstance of Accident
Requisites:
1. a lawful act
2. With due care
3. causes an injury to another by mere accident
4. Without fault or intention of causing it
There is NO SUCH MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCE because:
If the 2nd requisite (due care) and 1st part of the 4th requisite (fault)are absent, the
case will fall under Art. 365 which punishes reckless imprudence.
If the 1st requisite (lawful act) and 2nd part of the 4th requisite (intention) are absent,
it will be an intentional felony [Art. 4, par. 1].
b. Incomplete exempting circumstance of uncontrollable fear.
Requisites:
1. threat which caused the fear was of an evil greater than, or at least equal to, than
which required to commit;
2. evil of such gravity and imminence that an ordinary person would have succumbed.
Note: If only one of these requisites is present, there is only a mitigating circumstance.
UNDER 18 OR OVER 70 YEARS OF AGE
Basis: Diminution of Intelligence
Legal effects of various ages of offenders:
1. 15 and below - Exempting
2. Above 15 but under 18 years of age- exempting circumstance (unless he acted with
discernment, Art. 12, par. 3 as amended by RA 9344).
3. Minor delinquent under 18 years of age, the sentence may be suspended. [Art. 192,
PD No. 603 as amended by PD 1179]
4. Under 18 – privileged mitigating [Art. 68]
5. 18 years or over, full criminal responsibility.
6. 70 years or over – mitigating, no imposition of death penalty; if already imposed.
Execution of death penalty is suspended and commuted.
NO INTENTION TO COMMIT SO GRAVE A WRONG (PRAETER INTENTIONEM)
Basis: Diminution of intent.
The intention, as an internal act, is judged not only by the proportion of the means
employed by him to the evil produced by his act, but also by:
1. The weapon used
2. The part of the body injured
3. The injury inflicted
4. The manner it is inflicted

SUFFICIENT PROVOCATION OR THREAT

Provocation – any unjust or improper conduct or act of the offended party capable of
exciting, inciting, or irritating anyone
Basis: Diminution of intelligence and intent.
Elements:
1. provocation must be sufficient
2. must originate from the offended party
3. That the provocation must be personal and directed to the accused
4. That the provocation must be immediate to the act, i.e., to the commission of the
crime by the person who is provoked
“Sufficient” means adequate to excite a person to commit a wrong and must
accordingly be proportionate to its gravity. [People v. Nabora]
Sufficiency depends upon:
a. the act constituting provocation
b. the social standing of the person provoked
c. the place and time when the provocation is made.

IMMEDIATE VINDICATION OF A GRAVE OFFENSE

Basis: Diminution of the conditions of voluntariness.
Elements:
1. That there be a grave offense done to the one committing the felony, his spouse,
ascendants, descendants, legitimate, natural or adopted brothers or sisters, or relatives
by affinity within the same degree.
2. That the felony is committed in vindication of such grave offense. A lapse of time is
allowed between the vindication and the doing of the grave offense.
3. The vindication need not be done by the person upon whom the grave offense was
committed

PASSION OR OBFUSCATION (ARREBATO Y OBCECACION)

Basis: Diminution of intelligence and intent.
Requisites:
1. The accused acted upon an impulse
2. The impulse must be so powerful that it naturally produces passion or obfuscation in
him.
3. That there be an act, both unlawful and sufficient to produce such condition of mind;
and
4. That said act which produced the obfuscation was not far removed from the
commission of the crime by a considerable length of time, during which the perpetrator
might recover his normal equanimity. [People v. Alanguilang]
Passion or obfuscation not applicable when:
1. The act committed in a spirit of LAWLESSNESS.
2. The act is committed in a spirit of REVENGE.
VOLUNTARY SURRENDER AND CONFESSION OF GUILT
Basis: Lesser perversity of the offender.
Two Mitigating Circumstances under This Paragraph:
1. Voluntary surrender to a person in authority or his agents;
2. Voluntary confession of guilt before the court prior to the presentation of evidence
for the prosecution.
 Whether or not a warrant of arrest had been issued is immaterial and irrelevant.
Voluntary surrender
Requisites:
1. offender had not been actually arrested
2. offender surrendered himself to a person in authority or to the latter’s agent
3. surrender was voluntary.
Plea of guilt
Requisites:
a) offender spontaneously confessed his guilt.
b) confession of guilt was made in open court, that is, before the competent court that
is to try the case; and
a. The extrajudicial confession made by the accused is not voluntary confession
because it was made outside the court. [People v. Pardo]
c) confession of guilt was made prior to the presentation of evidence for the
prosecution.
a. The change of plea should be made at the first opportunity when his
arraignment was first set.
b. A conditional plea of guilty is not mitigating.
c. Plea of guilt on appeal is not mitigating.
d. Withdrawal of plea of not guilty before presentation of evidence by
prosecution is still mitigating. All that the law requires is voluntary plea of guilty
prior to the presentation of the evidence by the prosecution.
PHYSICAL DEFECTS
Basis: Diminution of freedom of action, therefore diminution of voluntariness.
No distinction between educated and uneducated deaf-mute or blind persons.
Physical defect - being armless, cripple, or a stutterer, whereby his means to act,
defend himself or communicate with his fellow beings are limited.
ILLNESS
Basis: Diminution of intelligence and intent
Elements:
1. illness of the offender must diminish the exercise of his will-power
2. illness should not deprive the offender of consciousness of his acts.
ANALOGOUS MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES
Any other circumstance of similar nature and analogous to the nine mitigating
circumstances enumerated in art. 13 may be mitigating.