CLJ BOOK 1

CRIMINAL LAW - a branch of municipal law which defines crimes,

treats of their nature and provides for their punishment.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIMINAL LAW

1. GENERAL
  2. TERRITORIAL 
3. PROSPECTIVE

GENERAL - binding on all persons who reside or sojourn in the 

Philippines.
                  
 Exceptions:
                   
1. Treaty Stipulation
                   
2. Laws of Preferential Application
                   
3. Principles of Public International Law
                        
ex. 
1. Sovereigns and other chief of state
                               
2. Ambassadors, Minister resident, and charges d' affaires

                    
Note: Consuls, Vice Consuls, and other foreign  commercial representatives can not claim the privileges
and immunities accorded to  ambassadors and ministers.

TERRITORIAL - Penal laws of the Philippines are enforceable only within its territory.
                        
Exception: Art. 2 of the RPC - binding even on  crimes committed outside the Philippines.
                        
1. Offenses committed while on a Philippine ship or airship.
                        
2. Forging or counterfeiting any coin or currency note of the Philippines or obligations and securities
issued by the government.
                       
3. Introduction into the country of the above mentioned obligations and securities.
                       
4. While being public officers and employees, an offense is committed in the exercise of their functions.
                       
5. Crimes against the National Security and the Law of the Nations.

PROSPECTIVE - The law does not have any retroactive effect.

                            
Exception: When the law is favorable to the accused.

Exception to the Exception: 

                            
1. The New Law is expressly made inapplicable to pending actions or existing causes of  action.
                            
2. Offender is a habitual criminal.

THEORIES OF CRIMINAL LAW

1. CLASSICAL THEORY - basis is man's free will to choose between  good and evil, that is why more stress
is placed upon the     result of the felonious act than upon the criminal himself. The purpose of penalty is
retribution. The RPC is generally  governed by this theory.

2. POSITIVIST THEORY - basis is the sum of social and economic phenomena which conditions man to do
wrong in spite of or contrary to his volition. This is exemplified in the provisions on impossible crimes
and habitual delinquency.

3. MIXED THEORY - combination of the classical and positivist  theories wherein crimes that are
economic and social in nature should be dealt in a positive manner. The law is thus 
 more compassionate.

CONSTRUCTION OF PENAL LAWS

1. Liberally construed in favor of offender.

Example: 

a. The offender must clearly fall within the terms of the law.
                        
b. An act is criminal only when made so by the statute.
2. In cases of conflict with official translation, original Spanish  text is controlling.

3. No interpretation by analogy.

LIMITATIONS ON POWER OF CONGRESS TO ENACT PENAL LAWS

1. Ex Post Facto Law

2. Bill of Attainder

3. Law that violates the equal protection clause of the constitution.

4. Law which imposes cruel and unusual punishments nor excessive fines.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

ABBERATIO ICTUS – mistake in blow.

What is the legal effect of aberratio ictus? 

       
a. may result in complex crime or two felonies
      
 b. if complex, apply Art. 48 - penalty for the more or most serious crime in its maximum period.

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.

1. Generic - those which apply to all crimes.

2. Specific - those which apply only to specific crimes.

3. Qualifying - those that change the nature of the crime.

4. Inherent - which of necessity accompany the commission of the crime, therefore not considered in
increasing the penalty to be imposed.
      
4. 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
cheme in the execution of the crime.
BILL OF ATTAINDER – A legislative act which inflicts punishment without trial.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

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 enalty shall
be imposed.

Crime – acts and omissions punishable by any law.

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

      
The Following are not subject to the operation of Philippine Criminal Law
      
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 in making his victim suffer slowly and
gradually, causing unnecessary physical pain in the consummation of the criminal act.

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

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.

 
Discernment - the mental capacity to fully appreciate the consequences of the unlawful act, which is
shown by the manner the crime was committed and the conduct of the offender after its commission.

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 guests in a house or bedspacers. It ncludes
dependencies, the foot of the staircase and the enclosure under the house.

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

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

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Error in personae – mistake in identity.

       
What is the legal effect of error in personae? 

a. if same crime results, liable for the same crime

b. if different crime results, apply Art. 49 - penalty for lesser crime in its maximum period

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.

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.

Felonies – acts and omissions punishable by the Revised Penal Code.

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.

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 by 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 - The 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.

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.

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.
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.

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

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 the 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 a felony before beginning to serve or while serving a
sentence on a previous conviction for a felony. This is a special aggravating circumstance.

Definition of Terms

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 duly-accredited foreign diplomatic
representatives in the Philippines.

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).
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.

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.

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 

1. Freedom
2. Intelligence
3. Intent

Requisites of Culpa

1. Freedom
2. Intelligence
3. 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

1. French Rule
2. 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 especially to ensure 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 the time of the commission of the offense.
 CLJ BOOK 2

Title 1
Crimes Against National Security and the Law of Nations

Title 2
Crimes Against the Fundamental laws of the State

Title 3
Crimes Against Public Order

Title 4
Crimes Against Public Interest

Title 5
Crimes Relative to Opium and Other Prohibited Drug

Title 6
Crimes Against Public Morals

Title 7
Crimes Committed by Public Officers

Title 8
Crimes Against Persons

Title 9
Crimes Against Personal Liberty and Security

Title 10
Crimes Against Property
Title 11
Crimes Against Chastity

Title 12
Crimes Against the Civil Status of Persons

Title 13
Crimes Against Honor

Title 14
Quasi-Offenses

Definition of Terms

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 used 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. The offended party is a female or male.

Adherence – intellectually or emotionally favors the enemy and harbors sympathies or convictions
disloyal to his country’s policy or interest.

Agent Of Person In Authority – any person who, by direct provision of law or by election or by
appointment by a 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 gov’t 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 – an 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 the
government for any of the purposes of rebellion and decide to commit it.

Coup d' Etat - Essence of the crime: a 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 a prosecution for
the punishment of violations of the law. A 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 any act. It is sufficient that he accepts the gift
offered by 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 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 that 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 private individual public officer who unlawfully detains or deprives 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 for 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 the 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 - the act of planting evidence and the like in order to incriminate an
innocent person.