CRIMINAL LAW 1

Abberatio Ictus mistake in blow.

What is the legal effect of aberratio ictus?

may result in complex crime or two felonies; OR

if complex, apply Art. 48 - penalty for the more
serious crime in its maximum period

or most

Absolutory Causes - where the act committed is a crime but for some reason of
public policy and sentiment, there is no penalty imposed. Exempting and justifying
circumstances are absolutory causes.
Accomplices - Persons who do not act as principals but cooperate in the execution
of the offense by previous and simultaneous acts, which are not indispensable to the
commission of the crime. They act as mere instruments that perform acts not
essential to the perpetration of the offense.
Act an overt or external act. Any bodily movement tending to produce some effect
in the external world.
Actus Me Invito Factus Non Est Meus Actus Any act done by me against my will
is not my act.
Agent - subordinate public officer charged w/ the maintenance of public order and
protection and security of life and property.
Aggravating Circumstances - Those which, if attendant in the commission of the
crime, serve to have the penalty imposed in its maximum period provided by law for
the offense or those that change the nature of the crime.

Generic - those which apply to all crimes.

Specific - those which apply only to
specific crimes.
Qualifying - those that change the nature of the crime.
Inherent - which of necessity accompany the commission of the
crime, therefore not considered in increasing the penalty to be
imposed.

Special - those which arise under special conditions to increase the

penalty of the offense and cannot be offset by mitigating
circumstances.

Alternative Circumstances Those which must be taken into consideration as

aggravating or mitigating according to the nature and effects of the crime and the
other conditions attending its commission.
Amnesty is an act of the sovereign power granting oblivion or general pardon. It
wipes all traces and vestiges of the crime but does not extinguish civil liability.
Astucia (Craft) involved the use of intellectual trickery or cunning on the part of the
accused. A chicanery resorted to by the accused to aid in the execution of his
criminal design. It is employed as a scheme in the execution of the crime.
Bill Of Attainder A legislative act which inflicts punishment without trial.
Characteristics of Criminal Law:
1. General
2. Territorial
3. Prospective
Circumstances That Affect Criminal Liability:
1. Justifying circumstances
2. Exempting circumstances
3. Mitigating circumstances
4. Aggravating circumstances
5. Alternative circumstances
Commutation change in the decision of the court by the chief regarding the
degree of the penalty by decreasing the length of the imprisonment or fine.
Consummated Felonies - when all the elements necessary for its execution and
accomplishment are present.

Continued Crime refers to a single crime consisting of a series of acts but all
arising from one criminal resolution. Although there is a series of acts, there is only
one crime committed, so only one penalty shall be imposed.

guests in a house or bedspacers. It includes dependencies, the foot of the staircase

and the enclosure under the house.

Crime acts and omissions punishable by any law.

El que es causa de la causa es causa del mal causado - Spanish maxim which
means: "He who is the cause of the cause is the cause of the evil caused.

Criminal law - A branch of municipal law which defines crimes, treats of their nature
and provides for their punishment.

En Cuadrilla (Band) whenever there are more than 3 armed malefactors that shall
have acted together in the commission of an offense.

The Following are not subject to the operation of Philippine Criminal Law:

Entrapment - ways and means are resorted to for the purpose of trapping and
capturing the lawbreaker in the execution of his criminal plan.

1. Sovereigns and other heads of state

2. Charges d'affaires
3. Ambassadors
4. Ministers plenipotentiary
5. Ministers resident
Cruelty there is cruelty when the culprit enjoys and delights I making his victim
suffer slowly and gradually, causing unnecessary physical pain in the consummation
of the criminal act.

Error in personae mistake in identity.

What is the legal effect of error in personae?
if same crime results, liable for the same crime
if different crime results, apply Art. 49 - penalty for lesser crime in its
maximum period

Degree one whole penalty, one entire penalty or one unit of the penalties
enumerated in the graduated scales provided for in Art. 71

Exempting Circumstances - grounds for exemption from punishment because

there is wanting in the agent of the crime any of the conditions which make the act
voluntary or negligent.

Despoblado (Uninhabited Place) one where there are no houses at all, a place at
a considerable distance from town, where the houses are scattered at a great
distance from each other.

Ex Post Facto Law - An act which when committed was not a crime, cannot be
made so by statute without violating the constitutional inhibition as to ex post facto
laws.

Discernment - mental capacity to fully appreciate the consequences of the unlawful

act, which is shown by the manner the crime was committed and conduct of the
offender after its commission.

Felonies acts and omissions punishable by the Revised Penal Code.

Disfraz (Disguise) resorting to any device to conceal identity.

Duress - use of violence or physical force.
Dwelling - must be a building or structure exclusively used for rest and comfort
(combination of house and store not included), may be temporary as in the case of

Fence is a person who commits the act of fencing. A fence who receives stolen
property as above- provided is not an accessory but a principal in the crime defined
in and punished by the Anti-Fencing Law.
Fencing is an act, with intent to gain, of buying, selling, receiving, possessing,
keeping, or in any other manner dealing in anything of value which a person knows
or should have known to be derived from the proceeds of the crime of robbery or
theft.

Fraud (fraude) insidious words or machinations used to induce the victim to act in
a manner which would enable the offender to carry out his design.
Good conduct allowance during confinement Deduction for the term of
sentence for good behavior.

Mala In Se - acts or omissions that are inherently evil.

Mala Prohibita - acts made evil because there is a law prohibiting it.
Misdemeanor - a minor infraction of law.

Habitual Delinquency or Multi-recidivism Where a person within a period of ten

years from the date of his release or last conviction of the crimes of serious or less
serious physical injuries, robbery, theft, estafa or falsification, is found guilty of the
said crimes a third time or oftener. This is an extraordinary aggravating
circumstance.
Habitual Delinquent - A person who, within a period of ten years from the date of his
release or last conviction of the crimes of serious or less serious physical injuries,
robbery, theft, estafa, or falsification, is found guilty of any said crimes a third time or
oftener.
Ignominy is a circumstance pertaining to the moral order, which adds disgrace and
obloquy to the material injury caused of the crime.
Imbecile - one while advanced in age has a mental development comparable to that
of children between 2 and 7 years old. He is exempt in all cases from criminal
liability.
Insane - one who acts with complete deprivation of intelligence/reason or without the
least discernment or with total deprivation of freedom of will. Mere abnormality of the
mental faculties will not exclude imputability.
Instigation - Instigator practically induces the would-be accused into the commission
of the offense and himself becomes a co-principal.
Insuperable Clause - some motive, which has lawfully, morally or physically
prevented a person to do what the law commands.
Irresistible Force - offender uses violence or physical force to compel another
person to commit a crime.
Justifying Circumstances - where the act of a person is in accordance with law
such that said person is deemed not to have violated the law.

Mistake of Fact - misapprehension of fact on the part of the person who caused
injury to another. He is not criminally liable.
Mitigating Circumstances - those which if present in the commission of the crime
reduces the penalty of the crime but does not erase criminal liability nor change the
nature of the crime.
Motive - it is the moving power which impels one to action for a definite result.
Nullum Crimen, Nulla Poena Sine Lege There is no crime when there is no law
punishing it.
Obscuridad (Night time) that period of darkness beginning at the end of dusk and
ending at dawn.
Offense - a crime punished under special law.
Omission failure to perform a duty required by law.
Pardon an act of grace proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of
laws, which exempts the individual from the punishment the law inflicts for the crime.
Parole consists in the suspension of the sentence of a convict after serving the
minimum term of the indeterminate penalty, without granting pardon, prescribing the
terms upon which the sentence shall be suspended. In case his parole conditions are
not observed, a convict may be returned to the custody and continue to serve his
sentence without deducting the time that elapsed.
Penalty suffering inflicted by the State for the transgression of a law.
Period one of 3 equal portions, min/med/max of a divisible penalty. A period of a
divisible penalty when prescribed by the Code as a penalty for a felony, is in itself a
degree.

Person In Authority - public authority, or person who is directly vested with

jurisdiction and has the power to govern and execute the laws.

Rank - The designation or title of distinction used to fix the relative position of the
offended party in reference to others. (There must be a difference in the social
condition of the offender and the offended party).

Plurality Of Crimes consists in the successive execution by the same individual of

different criminal acts upon any of which no conviction has yet been declared.

Recidivism Where a person, on separate occasions, is convicted of two offenses

embraced in the same title in the RPC. This is a generic aggravating circumstance.

Praetor Intentionem - lack of intent to commit so grave a wrong.

Recidivist one who at the time of his trial for one crime, shall have been previously
convicted by final judgment of another crime embraced in the same title of the RPC.

What is the legal effect of praeter intentionem?

a mitigating circumstance (Art. 13, par. 3)
Prescription Of A Crime is the loss/forfeiture of the right of the state to prosecute
the offender after the lapse of a certain time.
Prescription Of Penalty - means the loss/forfeiture of the right of government to
execute the final sentence after the lapse of a certain time.
Probation - a disposition under which a defendant after conviction and sentence is
released subject to conditions imposed by the court and to the supervision of a
probation officer.
Pro Reo - whenever a penal law is to be construed or applied and the law admits of
two interpretations, one lenient to the offender and one strict to the offender, that
interpretation which is lenient or favorable to the offender will be adopted.
Proximate Cause - the cause, which in the natural and continuous sequence
unbroken by any efficient intervening cause, produces the injury, without which the
result would not have occurred.
Quasi-Recidivism Where a person commits felony before beginning to serve or
while serving sentence on a previous conviction for a felony. This is a special
aggravating circumstance.
RA 75 - This law penalizes acts which would impair the proper observance by the
Republic and its inhabitants of the immunities, rights, and privileges of dulyaccredited foreign diplomatic representatives in the Philippines.

Reiteracion or Habituality Where the offender has been previously punished for
an offense to which the law attaches an equal or greater penalty or for two crimes to
which it attaches a lighter penalty. This is a generic aggravating circumstance.
Requisites of Dolo or Malice
Freedom
Intelligence
Intent
Requisites of Culpa
Freedom
Intelligence
Negligence, Imprudence, Lack of Foresight, Lack of Skill
Negligence - it indicates a deficiency of perception; failure to pay
proper attention and to use diligence in foreseeing the injury or
damage impending to be caused; usually involves lack of foresight.
Imprudence - it indicates a deficiency of action; failure to take the
necessary precaution to avoid injury to person or damage to property
usually involves lack of skill.
Rules on jurisdiction over private or merchant vessels while in the territory of
another country:
French Rule
English Rule
Stand Ground When in The Right - the law does not require a person to retreat when
his assailant is rapidly advancing upon him with a deadly weapon.

Stages In The Execution Of A Crime:

1. Attempted Stage - a stage in the execution of a crime where the
offender commences commission of a felony directly by over acts, and
does NOT perform all acts of execution which should produce the felony
by reason of some cause or accident other his spontaneous desistance.
2. Frustrated Stage - a stage in the execution of a crime where the
offender performs all the acts of execution which would produce the
felony as a consequence but which, nevertheless, do not produce it due
to some cause independent of the will of the perpetrator.
3. Consummated Stage - a stage in the execution of a crime where all the
elements necessary for its execution and accomplishment are present.
Treachery when the offender commits any of the crimes against the person,
employing means, methods or forms in the execution thereof which tend directly and
specially to insure its execution without risk to himself arising from the defense which
the offended party might make.
Uncontrollable Fear - offender employs intimidation or threat in compelling another
to commit a crime.
Unlawful Entry - when an entrance is effected by a way not intended for the
purpose.
Youthful offender over 9 but under 18 at time of the commission of the offense.

CRIMINAL LAW 2:
Abduction - the taking away of a woman from her house or the place
where she may be for the purpose of carrying her to another place
with the intent to marry or to corrupt her.

Forcible abduction - If a woman is transported from one place to

another by virtue of restraining her of her liberty, and that act is coupled
with lewd designs.

Serious illegal detention - If a woman is transported just to restrain

her of her liberty. There is no lewd design or lewd intent.

Grave coercion - If a woman is carried away just to break her will, to

compel her to agree to the demand or request by the offender.

Special complex crime of Kidnapping with Murder - When the

victim dies or is killed as a consequence of the detention.

Abortion By A Physician Or Midwife And Dispensing Of Abortives - punishes a

pharmacist who merely dispenses with an abortive without the proper prescription of
a physician. If pharmacist knew that the abortive would be use for abortion, she
would be liable as an accomplice in the crime of abortion.
Acts Of Lasciviousness - Committed under circumstances w/c, had there been
carnal knowledge, would amount to rape. Offended party is a female or male.
Adherence intellectually or emotionally favors the enemy and harbors sympathies
or convictions disloyal to his countrys policy or interest.
Agent Of Person In Authority any person who, by direct provision of law or by
election or by appointment by competent authority, is charged with the maintenance
of public order and the protection and security of life and property.
Aid or Comfort act w/c strengthens or tends to strengthen the enemy of the
government in the conduct of war against the government, or an act w/c weakens or
tends to weaken the power of the government or the country to resist or to attack the
enemies of the govt or country.
Alarms and Scandal - The essence of the crime is disturbance of public tranquility
and public peace. Any kind of disturbance of public order where the circumstance at
the time renders the act offensive to the tranquility prevailing, the crime is committed.
Allegiance obligation of fidelity and obedience which individuals owe to the
government under which they live or to the sovereign, in return for protection they
receive.
Certificate - any writing by which testimony is given that a fact has or has not taken
place.

Charivari - is a mock serenade or discordant noises made with kettles, tin horns
etc., designed to deride, insult or annoy.
Combination In Restraint Of Trade - is an agreement or understanding between
two or more persons in the form of a contract, trust, pool, holding company or other
form of association, for the purpose of unduly restricting competition, monopolizing
trade and commerce in a certain commodity, controlling its production, distribution
and price, or otherwise interfering with freedom of trade without statutory authority.
Combination in restraint of trade refers to the means while monopoly refers to the
end.
Conspiracy - when two or more persons come to an agreement to rise publicly and
take arms against government for any of the purposes of rebellion and decide to
commit it.
Coup d' Etat - Essence of the crime: Swift attack against the government, its military
camps an installations, etc. It may be committed singly or collectively. Committed
through force, violation, intimidation, threat, strategy or stealth.
Customs - refer to established usage, social conventions carried on by tradition and
enforced by social disapproval in case of violation.
Decency - means properly observing the requirements of modesty, good taste.
Delay in the Delivery of Detained Persons - Crime is committed by failing to deliver
such person to the proper judicial authority within a certain period. Detention is for
some legal ground.
Dereliction of Duty - Committed only by public officers who have the duty to
institute prosecution for the punishment of violations of the law. Public officer does
not abandon his office but merely fails to prosecute a violation of the law.
Direct Assault - The Public Authority or the Agent of the Public Authority must be
engaged in the performance of official duties or that he is assaulted by reason
thereof.
Direct Bribery - the officer agrees to perform or refrain from doing an act in
consideration of the gift or promise.

Indirect Bribery - it is not necessary that the officer do an act. It is

sufficient that he accepts the gift offered b reason of his office.

Dissolute lax, unrestrained, immoral (includes maintainer of house of prostitution).

Document - any written statement by which a right is established or an obligation is
extinguished.
Duel - is a formal or regular combat previously consented to by two parties in the
presence of two or more seconds of lawful age on each side, who make the selection
of arms and fix all the other conditions of the fight to settle some antecedent quarrel.
If these are not the conditions of the fight, it is not a duel in the
sense contemplated in the Revised Penal Code. It will be a quarrel
and anyone who killed the other will be liable for homicide or
murder, as the case may be.
Espionage - is the offense of gathering, transmitting, or losing information respecting
the national defense with intent or reason to believe that the information is to be used
to the injury of the Republic of the Philippines or the advantage of a foreign nation.
Estafa With Abuse of Confidence - Crime is committed by misappropriating,
converting, or denying having received money, goods or other personal property.
False Testimony - committed by a person who, being under oath and required to
testify as to the truth of a certain matter at a hearing before a competent authority,
shall deny the truth or say something contrary to it.
Forgery - The essence of forgery is giving a document the appearance of a true and
genuine document. Not any alteration of a letter, number, figure or design would
amount to forgery. At most, it would only be frustrated forgery.
Grave scandal - consists of acts which are offensive to decency and good customs.
They are committed publicly and thus, give rise to public scandal to persons who
have accidentally witnessed the acts.
Illegal Detention - Committed by a Committed by private individual public officer or
who unlawfully employee who deprives a person detains a person of his liberty.

Illegal Exactions - This can only be committed principally by a public officer whose
official duty is to collect taxes, license fees, import duties and other dues payable to
the government. Mere demand of a larger or different amount is sufficient to
consummate the crime. The essence is the improper collection (damage to
government is not required)
Illegal marriage - Illegal marriage includes also such other marriages which are
performed without complying with the requirements of law, or marriages where the
consent of the other is vitiated, or such marriage which was solemnized by one who
is not authorized to solemnize the same.
Imprudence - Failure in precaution.
Incriminating Innocent Person - act of planting evidence and the like in order to
incriminate an innocent person.
Inducing A Minor To Abandon His Home - What constitutes the crime is the act of
inducing a minor to abandon his home of his guardian, and it is not necessary that
the minor actually abandons the home.
Infanticide - the victim is younger than three days or 72 hours old; can be committed
by a stranger. If a stranger who conspires with parent, both commit the crime of
infanticide.
In Flight From the moment all exterior doors are closed following embarkation until
the same doors are again opened for disembarkation.
Insurrection - more commonly employed in reference to a movement which seeks
merely to effect some change of minor importance, or to prevent the exercise of
governmental authority with respect to particular matters or subjects.
Interlocutory Order - one issued by the court deciding a collateral or incidental
matter; it is not a final determination of the issues of the action or proceeding.
Intriguing Against Honor - is referred to as gossiping: the offender, without
ascertaining the truth of a defamatory utterance, repeats the same and pass it on to
another, to the damage of the offended party.
Libel - Defamation is in writing or printed media.

Slander - oral defamation.

Defamation - public and malicious imputation calculated to cause

dishonor, discredit, or contempt upon the offended party.

Malfeasance - Doing of an act which a public officer should not have done.
Malversation - is otherwise called embezzlement. Crime is committed by
approaching, taking, or misappropriating/consenting, or through abandonment or
negligence, permitting any other person to take the public funds/property.
Manifestly Unjust Judgment manifestly contrary to law that even a person having
meager knowledge of law cannot doubt the injustice; not abuse of discretion or mere
error of judgment.
Medical Malpractice - which is a form of negligence, consists in the failure of a
physician or surgeon to apply to his practice of medicine that degree of care and skill
which is ordinarily employed by the profession generally, under similar conditions,
and in like surrounding circumstances.
Misfeasance - Improper doing of an act which a person might lawfully do.
Monopoly - is a privilege or peculiar advantage vested in one or more persons or
companies, consisting in the exclusive right or power to carry on a particular
business or trade, manufacture a particular article, or control the sale or the whole
supply of a particular commodity. It is a form of market structure in which one or only
a few firms dominate the total sales of a product or service.
Mutiny - the unlawful resistance to a superior, or the raising of commotions and
disturbances on board a ship against the authority of its commander.
Negligence - Failure in advertence.
Nonfeasance - Failure of an agent to perform his undertaking for the principal.
Perjury by Making False Accusations - giving of false statement under oath or
making a false affidavit, imputing to the person the commission of a crime.

Person In Authority any person directly vested with jurisdiction, whether as an

individual or as a member of some court or governmental corporation, board or
commission.

Seduction - enticing a woman to unlawful sexual intercourse by promise of marriage

or other means of persuasion without use of force. It applies when there is abuse of
authority (qualified seduction) or deceit (simple seduction).

Piracy - it is robbery or forcible depredation on the high seas, without lawful authority
and done with animus furandi and in the spirit and intention of universal hostility.

Service Mark is a mark used in the sale or advertising of services to identify the
services of one person and distinguish them from the services of others and includes
without limitation the marks, names, symbols, titles, designations, slogans, character
names, and distinctive features of radio or other advertising.
Slavery - This is committed if anyone shall purchase, kidnap, or detain a human
being for the purpose of enslaving him.

Political Crimes are those directly aimed against the political order, as well as
such common crimes as may be committed to achieve a political purpose. The
decisive factor is the intent or motive.
Prevaricacion - means the negligence and tolerance in the prosecution of an
offense.
Proposal - when the person who has decided to rise publicly and take arms against
the government for any of the purposes of rebellion proposes its execution to some
other person or persons.
Prostitutes - women who habitually (not just 1 man) indulge in sexual intercourse or
lascivious conduct for money or profit (If a man indulges in the same conduct, the
crime committed is vagrancy.)
Quasi-Recidivism - Commission of another Crime during service of
Penalty imposed for another previous offense.

Trade-Name Or Trade-Mark is a word or words, name, title, symbol, emblem, sign

or device, or any combination thereof used as an advertisement, sign, label, poster,
or otherwise, for the purpose of enabling the public to distinguish the business of the
person who owns and uses said trade-name or trade-mark.
Treason breach of allegiance to the government by a person who owes allegiance
to it. The levying of war against the government would constitute treason when
performed to aid the enemy.
Tumultuous - caused by more than 3 persons who are armed or provided with
means of violence.

Rebellion - more frequently used where the object of the movement is completely to
overthrow and supersede the existing government.

Unfair Competition - consists in employing deception or any other means contrary

to good faith by which any person shall pass off the goods manufactured by him or in
which he deals, or his business, or services for those of the one having established
goodwill, or committing any acts calculated to produce such result.

Revealing Secrets With Abuse Of Office - Essence of this crime is that the
offender learned of the secret in the course of his employment. He is enjoying a
confidential relation with the employer or master so he should respect the privacy of
matters personal to the latter.

Unintentional Abortion - requires physical violence inflicted deliberately and

voluntarily by a third person upon the pregnant woman. If the pregnant woman
aborted because of intimidation, the crime committed is not unintentional abortion
because there is no violence; the crime committed is light threats.

Ruffians brutal, violent, lawless.

Unlawful Arrest - This felony consists in making an arrest or detention without legal
or reasonable ground for the purpose of delivering the offended party to the proper
authorities.

Sedition - It is the raising of commotions or disturbances in the State. It is sufficient

that the public uprising be tumultuous. The purpose may be political or social.

Vagrants - Those who have no apparent means of subsistence and who have the
physical ability to work yet neglect to apply themselves to some useful calling.