I.

General principles
A. Criminal law
Definition
Criminal is that branch or division of law which defines crime, treats of their
nature, and provides for their punishments.
Sources
1. RPC act# 3815 and its amendments
2. Special penal laws passed by P. commission, P. assembly, P. legislature,
natl assembly, congress of the P. and the batasang pambansa
3. Penal presidential decree issued during martial law
Rules of construction
Power to define and punish crimes
The state has the authority, under its police power, to define and punish
crimes and to lay down the rules of criminal procedure.
Limitation on power of the lawmaking body
1. No ex post facto law or bill of attainder
Ex post facto make criminal an act done before the passage of the bill
Bill of attainder is a legislative act which inflicts punishment without trial
2. No person is held without due process
B. Theories
Classical characteristics. 1. Basis of criminal liability is human free will and
the purpose of the penalty is retribution. 2. Man is essentially moral with an
absolute free will to choose between good and evil. 3. Endeavored to establish a
mechanical and direct proportion between crime and penalty. 4. Ther is a scant
regard to human element.
Positivist characteristics. 1. The man is subdued occasionally by stange and
morbid phenomenon which constrain him to do wrong. 2. The crime is essentially a
social and natural phenomenon.
Mixed
C. Characteristic
1. General. Criminal law is binding on all persons who live or sojourn in the P.
territory
Exception, treaty stipulation- bases agreement, law of preferential
application- sovereign and other chiefs, ambassador, ministers

2. Territorial. Criminal laws undertake to punish crimes committed under the

P. territory
Exceptions. A2 RPC. 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 presiding 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.
French rule such crimes are not triable in the courts of that country, unless
their commission affects the peace and security of the territory or the safety of the
stare is endangered.
English rule such crimes are triable in that country, unless they merely affect
things within the vessel or they refer to the internal management thereof
3. Prospective. A penal law cannot make an act punishable in a manner in
which it was not punishable when committed
Exceptions. 1. Where the expressly made inapplicable to pending actions or
existing causes of action. 2. Where the offender is habitual criminal
D. Limitation upon penal legislation
E. Duty of the court when the act is not covered by penal laws A5
F. Application of RPC to special laws

II.
Felonies
A. Crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of public law forbidding or
commanding it.
Felonies are acts and omission punishable by RPC
Elements: 1. Act or omission 2. Punishable by RPC 3. Act incurred by means
of dolo or culpa
Offenses
B. Mala in se refers generally to felonies defines and penalized by RPC, acts are
inherently immoral
Mala prohibita refers generally to acts made criminal by special laws.
Motive is the moving power which impels one action for a definite result, intent is
the purpose to use a particular means to effect such results.

C. Classification of felonies
Intentional felonies, the act or omission of the offender is malicious, the act is
performed with deliberate intent (malice), has intion to cause injury.
Culpable felonies act of the offender in not malicious, unintentional, incident
of another act without malice.
Mistake of fact is a misapprehension of fact on this part of the person who caused
injury to another, however, he is not liable because he did not act with criminal
intent.
Requisites. 1. The act done would have been lawful have the facts been as
the accused believed them to be. 2. The intention of accused in performing the act
should be lawful. 3. The mistake must be without fault or carelessness on the part of
the accused

III.
CL
A. Definitions
Criminal liability shall be incurred by 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 an account of the
employment of inadequate or ineffectual means.
Rationale, el que causa de la causa es causa del mal causado, he who is the cause
of the cause id\s the cause of evil cause.
B. requisites
a. that an intentional felony has been committed; b. that the wrong done to the
aggrieved party be direct, natural, and logical consequence of the felony committed
by the offender.
C. Doctrine of proximate cause
Proximate cause is that the cause, which, in natural and continuous
sequence, unbroken by any efficient intervening cause, procedures the injury, and
without which the result would not have occurred
Meaning/ distinguish from immediate cause
Exception: efficient intervening cause
Supervening cause

D. Liability for a felony not intended

Requisites
Praeter intentionem
Error in personae (mistake of person)
Aberratio ictus (mistake in the blow)
E. Impossible crime the commission of the impossible crime is the indicative of
propensity or criminal tendency on the part of the actor.
Requisites of IC, 1. Act performed would be an offense against persons or
property 2. That the act was done with evil intent. 3. Either inadequate or ineffect.
4. Act performed should not constitute a violations of another provision of RPC
Legal impossibility
Physical impossibility
Inadequate means
Ineffectual means

Stages of execution A6
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 or over acts, and does not perform all the acts of execution which should
produce the felony by reason of some cause or accident other than this own
spontaneous desistance.
Formal crimes - consummated in one instant, no attempt like slander
Material crimes there are 3 stages of execution
Crime development: internal acts ideas in the mind, external acts preparatory
acts, acts of execution.

Attempted felony Elements

1. The offender commences the commission of the felony directly by overt acts;
2. He does not perform all the acts of execution which should produce the felony;
3. The offenders act be not stopped by his own spontaneous desistance
4. The non-performance of all acts of execution was due to cause or accident other
than his spontaneous desistance
Frustrated felony elements
1 The offender performs all the acts of execution;
2 all the acts performed would produce the felony as a consequence;
3 but the felony is not produced; and
4 by reason of causes independent of the will of the perpetrator.
Felonies with no frustrated stage

Conspiracy and proposal to commit felony A5

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.
Conspiracy defined
General rule on conspiracy: exception
Conspiracy and proposal to commit felony are not punishable, x- they are
punishable only in the cases in which the law specially provides a penalty therefor.
Conspiracy as a manner of incurring criminal liability
When a conspiracy relates to a crime actually committed, it is not a felony but a
manner of incurring criminal liability
Requisite of a felony

1that two or more persons came to an agreement,

2that the agreement concerned the commission of a crime, and
3that the execution of the felony [was] decided uponProposal to commit a felony

Classification of felonies according to gravity A9

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 Art. 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 above-mentioned Art.
Light felonies are those infractions of law for the commission of which a penalty of
arrest menor or a fine not exceeding 200 pesos or both; is provided.

Continuing crimes
A continued, continuing, continuous crime is a single crime, consisting of series of
acts but all aring from one criminal resolution

Complex crimes A48

Compound crime- when a single act constitutes 2 or more grave or less grave
felonies
Complex crime- when an offense is a necessary means for committing the other.
Special complex
Special complex crime distinguished from a complex crime