ACT NO.

3815

AN ACT REVISING THE PENAL CODE AND OTHER PENAL LAWS

PRELIMINARY ARTICLE

This law shall be known as “The Revised Penal Code.”

BOOK ONE

General Provisions Regarding the Date of Enforcement and Application of the

Provisions of this Code, and Regarding the Offenses, the Persons Liable and the
Penalties

PRELIMINARY TITLE

Date of Effectiveness and Application of the Provisions of This Code

ARTICLE 1. Time When Act Takes Effect. — This Code shall take effect on the first day
of January, nineteen hundred and thirty-two.

ARTICLE 2. Application of Its Provisions. — Except as provided in the treaties and laws
of preferential application, the provisions of this Code shall be enforced not only within
the Philippine Archipelago, including its atmosphere, its interior waters and maritime
zone, but also outside of its jurisdiction, against those who:

1. Should commit an offense while on a Philippine ship or airship;

2. Should forge or counterfeit any coin or currency note of the Philippine Islands or
obligations and securities issued by the Government of the Philippine Islands;

3. Should be liable for acts connected with the introduction into these islands of the
obligations and securities mentioned in the preceding number;

4. While being public officers or employees, should commit an offense in the exercise of
their functions; or

5. Should commit any of the crimes against national security and the law of nations,
defined in Title One of Book Two of this Code.

TITLE ONE

Felonies and Circumstances Which Affect Criminal Liability

CHAPTER ONE
 Felonies

ARTICLE 3. Definition. — Acts and omissions punishable by law are felonies (delitos).

Felonies are committed not only by means of deceit (dolo) but also by means of fault
(culpa).

There is deceit when the act is performed with deliberate intent; and there is fault when
the wrongful act results from imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight, or lack of skill.

ARTICLE 4. Criminal Liability. — Criminal liability shall be incurred:

1. By any person committing a felony (delito) although the wrongful act done be different
from that which he intended.

2. By any person performing an act which would be an offense against persons or

property, were it not for the inherent impossibility of its accomplishment or on account of
the employment of inadequate or ineffectual means.

ARTICLE 5. Duty of the Court in Connection with Acts Which Should Be Repressed but
Which are Not Covered by the Law, and in Cases of Excessive Penalties. — Whenever
a court has knowledge of any act which it may deem proper to repress and which is not
punishable by law, it shall render the proper decision, and shall report to the Chief
Executive, through the Department of Justice, the reasons which induce the court to
believe that said act should be made the subject of penal legislation.

In the same way the court shall submit to the Chief Executive, through the Department
of Justice, such statement as may be deemed proper, without suspending the execution
of the sentence, when a strict enforcement of the provisions of this Code would result in
the imposition of a clearly excessive penalty, taking into consideration the degree of
malice and the injury caused by the offense.

ARTICLE 6. Consummated,, Frustrated, and Attempted Felonies. — Consummated

felonies, as well as those which are frustrated and attempted, are punishable.

A felony is consummated when all the elements necessary for its execution and
accomplishment are present; and it is frustrated when the offender performs all the acts
of execution which would produce the felony as a consequence but which,
nevertheless, do not produce it by reason of causes independent of the will of the
perpetrator.

There is an attempt when the offender commences the commission of a felony directly
by overt acts, and does not perform all the acts of execution which should produce the
felony by reason of some cause or accident other than his own spontaneous
desistance.
ARTICLE 7. When Light Felonies are Punishable. — Light felonies are punishable only
when they have been consummated, with the exception of those committed against
person or property.

ARTICLE 8. Conspiracy and Proposal to Commit Felony. — Conspiracy and proposal to

commit felony are punishable only in the cases in which the law specially provides a
penalty therefor.

A conspiracy exists when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning the
commission of a felony and decide to commit it.

There is proposal when the person who has decided to commit a felony proposes its
execution to some other person or persons.

ARTICLE 9. Grave Felonies, Less Grave Felonies and Light Felonies. — Grave felonies
are those to which the law attaches the capital punishment or penalties which in any of
their periods are afflictive, in accordance with article 25 of this Code.

Less grave felonies are those which the law punishes with penalties which in their
maximum period are correctional, in accordance with the abovementioned article.

Light felonies are those infractions of law for the commission of which the penalty of
arresto menor or a fine not exceeding 200 pesos or both, is provided.

ARTICLE 10. Offenses Not Subject to the Provisions of this Code. — Offenses which
are or in the future may be punishable under special laws are not subject to the
provisions of this Code. This Code shall be supplementary to such laws, unless the
latter should specially provide the contrary.

CHAPTER TWO

Justifying Circumstances and Circumstances which Exempt from Criminal Liability

ARTICLE 11. Justifying Circumstances. — The following do not incur any criminal
liability:

1. Anyone who acts in defense of his person or rights, provided that the following
circumstances concur:

First. Unlawful aggression;

Second. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it;

Third. Lack of sufficient provocation on the part of the person defending himself.
2. Anyone who acts in defense of the person or rights of his spouse, ascendants,
descendants, or legitimate, natural or adopted brothers or sisters, or of his relatives by
affinity in the same degrees, and those by consanguinity within the fourth civil degree,
provided that the first and second requisites prescribed in the next preceding
circumstance are present, and the further requisite, in case the provocation was given
by the person attacked, that the one making defense had no part therein.

3. Anyone who acts in defense of the person or rights of a stranger, provided that the
first and second requisites mentioned in the first circumstance of this article are present
and that the person defending be not induced by revenge, resentment, or other evil
motive.

4. Any person who, in order to avoid an evil or injury, does an act which causes damage
to another, provided that the following requisites are present:

First. That the evil sought to be avoided actually exists;

Second. That the injury feared be greater than that done to avoid it;

Third. That there be no other practical and less harmful means of preventing it.

5. Any person who acts in the fulfillment of a duty or in the lawful exercise of a right or
office.

6. Any person who acts in obedience to an order issued by a superior for some lawful
purpose.

ARTICLE 12. Circumstances Which Exempt from Criminal Liability. — The following are
exempt from criminal liability:

1. An imbecile or an insane person, unless the latter has acted during a lucid interval.

When the imbecile or an insane person has committed an act which the law defines as
a felony (delito), the court shall order his confinement in one of the hospitals or asylums
established for persons thus afflicted, which he shall not be permitted to leave without
first obtaining the permission of the same court.

2. A person under nine years of age.

3. A person over nine years of age and under fifteen, unless he has acted with
discernment, in which case, such minor shall be proceeded against in accordance with
the provisions of article 80 of this Code.

When such minor is adjudged to be criminally irresponsible, the court, in conformity with
the provisions of this and the preceding paragraph, shall commit him to the care and
custody of his family who shall be charged with his surveillance and education;
otherwise, he shall be committed to the care of some institution or person mentioned in
said article 80.

4. Any person who, while performing a lawful act with due care, causes an injury by
mere accident without fault or intention of causing it.

5. Any person who acts under the compulsion of an irresistible force.

6. Any person who acts under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of an equal or
greater injury.

7. Any person who fails to perform an act required by law, when prevented by some
lawful or insuperable cause.

CHAPTER THREE

Circumstances Which Mitigate Criminal Liability

ARTICLE 13. Mitigating Circumstances. — The following are mitigating circumstances:

1. Those mentioned in the preceding chapter, when all the requisites necessary to
justify the act or to exempt from criminal liability in the respective cases are not
attendant.

2. That the offender is under eighteen years of age or over seventy years. In the case of
the minor, he shall be proceeded against in accordance with the provisions of article 80.

3. That the offender had no intention to commit so grave a wrong as that committed.

4. That sufficient provocation or threat on the part of the offended party immediately
preceded the act.

5. That the act was committed in the immediate vindication of a grave offense to the one
committing the felony (delito), his spouse, ascendants, descendants, legitimate, natural,
or adopted brothers or sisters, or relatives by affinity within the same degrees.

6. That of having acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced

passion or obfuscation.

7. That the offender had voluntarily surrendered himself to a person in authority or his
agents, or that he had voluntarily confessed his guilt before the court prior to the
presentation of the evidence for the prosecution.

8. That the offender is deaf and dumb, blind or otherwise suffering some physical defect
which thus restricts his means of action, defense, or communication with his fellow
beings.
9. Such illness of the offender as would diminish the exercise of the will-power of the
offender without however depriving him of consciousness of his acts.

10. And, finally, any other circumstance of a similar nature and analogous to those
above mentioned.

CHAPTER FOUR

Circumstances Which Aggravate Criminal Liability

ARTICLE 14. Aggravating Circumstances. — The following are aggravating

circumstances:

1. That advantage be taken by the offender of his public position.

2. That the crime be committed in contempt of or with insult to the public authorities.

3. That the act be committed with insult or in disregard of the respect due to the
offended party on account of his rank, age, or sex, or that it be committed in the
dwelling of the offended party, if the latter has not given provocation.

4. That the act be committed with abuse of confidence or obvious ungratefulness.

5. That the crime be committed in the palace of the Chief Executive, or in his presence,
or where public authorities are engaged in the discharge of their duties, or in a place
dedicated to religious worship.

6. That the crime be committed in the nighttime, or in an uninhabited place, or by a

band, whenever such circumstances may facilitate the commission of the offense.

Whenever more than three armed malefactors shall have acted together in the
commission of an offense it shall be deemed to have been committed by a band.

7. That the crime be committed on the occasion of a conflagration, shipwreck,

earthquake, epidemic or other calamity or misfortune.

8. That the crime be committed with the aid of armed men or persons who insure or
afford impunity.

9. That the accused is a recidivist.

A recidivist is 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 this Code.
10. That the offender has been previously punished for an offense to which the law
attaches an equal or greater penalty or for two or more crimes to which it attaches a
lighter penalty.

11. That the crime be committed in consideration of a price, reward, or promise.

12. That the crime be committed by means of inundation, fire, poison, explosion,
stranding of a vessel or intentional damage thereto, derailment of a locomotive, or by
the use of any other artifice involving great waste and ruin.

13. That the act be committed with evident premeditation.

14. That craft, fraud, or disguise be employed.

15. That advantage be taken of superior strength, or means be employed to weaken the
defense.

16. That the act be committed with treachery (alevosia).

There is 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.

17. That means be employed or circumstances brought about which add ignominy to
the natural effects of the act.

18. That the crime be committed after an unlawful entry.

There is an unlawful entry when an entrance is effected by a way not intended for the
purpose.

19. That as a means to the commission of a crime a wall, roof, floor, door, or window be
broken.

20. That the crime be committed with the aid of persons under fifteen years of age or by
means of motor vehicles, airships, or other similar means.

21. That the wrong done in the commission of the crime be deliberately augmented by
causing other wrong not necessary for its commission.

CHAPTER FIVE

Alternative Circumstances
ARTICLE 15. Their Concept. — Alternative circumstances are 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. They are the
relationship, intoxication and the degree of instruction and education of the offender.

The alternative circumstance of relationship shall be taken into consideration when the
offended party is the spouse, ascendant, descendant, legitimate, natural, or adopted
brother or sister, or relative by affinity in the same degrees of the offender.

The intoxication of the offender shall be taken into consideration as a mitigating

circumstance when the offender has committed a felony in a state of intoxication, if the
same is not habitual or subsequent to the plan to commit said felony; but when the
intoxication is habitual or intentional it shall be considered as an aggravating
circumstance.

TITLE TWO

Persons Criminally Liable for Felonies

ARTICLE 16. Who are Criminally Liable. — The following are criminally liable for grave
and less grave felonies:

1. Principals.

2. Accomplices.

3. Accessories.

The following are criminally liable for light felonies:

1. Principals.

2. Accomplices.

ARTICLE 17. Principals. — The following are considered principals:

1. Those who take a direct part in the execution of the act;

2. Those who directly force or induce others to commit it;

3. Those who cooperate in the commission of the offense by another act without which
it would not have been accomplished.

ARTICLE 18. Accomplices. — Accomplices are those persons who, not being included
in article 17, cooperate in the execution of the offense by previous or simultaneous acts.
ARTICLE 19. Accessories. — Accessories are those who, having knowledge of the
commission of the crime, and without having participated therein, either as principals or
accomplices, take part subsequent to its commission in any of the following manners:

1. By profiting themselves or assisting the offender to profit by the effects of the crime.

2. By concealing or destroying the body of the crime, or the effects or instruments

thereof, in order to prevent its discovery.

3. By harboring, concealing, or assisting in the escape of the principal of the crime,

provided the accessory acts with abuse of his public functions or whenever the author of
the crime is guilty of treason, parricide, murder, or an attempt to take the life of the Chief
Executive, or is known to be habitually guilty of some other crime.

ARTICLE 20. Accessories Who are Exempt from Criminal Liability. — The penalties
prescribed for accessories shall not be imposed upon those who are such with respect
to their spouses, ascendants, descendants, legitimate, natural, and adopted brothers
and sisters, or relatives by affinity within the same degrees, with the single exception of
accessories falling within the provisions of paragraph 1 of the next preceding article.