CRIMES COMMITTED BY

PUBLIC OFFICERS IN THE

PERFORMANCE OF THEIR
FUNCTIONS
TOMAS L. BARANDON
Presenter
Falsification by Public Officer

Falsification by a public officer or employee

is committed by taking advantage of his
official position through the commission of
any of the following acts:
1. Counterfeiting or imitating any handwriting,
signature or rubric;
2. Causing it to appear that persons have
participated in any act or proceeding when they
did not in fact so participate;
3. Attributing to persons who have participated in
an act or proceeding statements other than those
in fact made by them;
4. Making untruthful statements in a narration of
facts;
5. Altering true dates;
6. Making any alteration or intercalation in a
genuine document which changes its meaning;
7. Issuing in an authenticated form a document
purporting to be a copy of an original document
when no such original exists, or including in such
a copy a statement contrary to, or different
from, that of the genuine original; or
8. Intercalating any instrument or note relative to
the issuance thereof in a protocol, registry, or
official book.
False medical certificates, false
certificates of merits or service, etc.
— is issued by:

1. any physician or surgeon who, in connection, with

the practice of his profession, shall issue a false
certificate; and
2. any public officer who shall issue a false
certificate of merit of service, good conduct or
similar circumstances.
3. any private person who shall falsify a certificate
falling within the classes above-mentioned.
Using False Certificates

Using false certificates is committed by a public

officer who shall knowingly use any false
certificates, false certificates of merits or service,
etc.
Usurpation of Authority or Official
Functions
Is committed by any person who shall knowingly
and falsely represent himself to be an officer,
agent or representative of any department or
agency of the Philippine Government or of any
foreign government, or who, under pretense of
official position, shall perform any act pertaining
to any person in authority or public officer of the
Philippine Government or any foreign government,
or any agency thereof, without being lawfully
entitled to do so.
Using Fictitious Name and Concealing
True Name

Is committed by any person who shall publicly use a

fictitious name for the purpose of concealing a
crime, evading the execution of a judgment or
causing damage.
False Testimony in other Cases and
Perjury in Solemn Affirmation
Is committed by any person, who knowingly makes
untruthful statements or shall testify under oath,
or make an affidavit, upon any material matter
before a competent person authorized to
administer an oath in cases in which the law so
requires.
Any person who, in case of a solemn affirmation
made in lieu of an oath, shall commit any of the
falsehoods herein mentioned shall also be liable for
false testimony
 Offering False Testimony in
Evidence

Offering false testimony in evidence is committed

by any person who shall knowingly offer in evidence
a false witness or testimony in any judicial or
official proceeding.
 Direct Bribery
Direct Bribery is committed by any public officer
who shall agree to perform an act which may or
may not constitute a crime, in connection with the
performance of his official duties, in consideration
of any offer, promise, gift or present received by
such officer, personally or through the mediation of
another.
It is likewise committed if the object for which the
gift was received or promised was to make the
public officer refrain from doing something which
it was his official duty to do.
 Indirect Bribery

Indirect Bribery is committed by any public officer

who shall accept gifts offered to him by reason of
his office.
 Malversation of Public Funds or
Property
Malversation of public funds or property is
committed by any public officer who, by reason of
the duties of his office, is accountable for public
funds or property, shall appropriate the same or
shall take or misappropriate or shall consent,
through abandonment or negligence, shall permit
any other person to take such public funds, or
property, wholly or partially, or shall otherwise be
guilty of the misappropriation or malversation of
such funds or property
The failure of a public officer to duly account any
public funds or property with which he is
chargeable, upon demand by any duly authorized
officer, shall be prima facie evidence that he has
put such missing funds or property to personal use.
 Failure of Accountable Officer to
Render Accounts
Any public officer, whether in the service or
separated therefrom by resignation or any other
cause, who is required by law or regulation to
render account to the Insular Auditor, or to a
provincial auditor and who fails to do so for a
period of two months after such accounts should be
rendered, shall be accountable for failure of
accountable officer to render accounts.
 Failure of a Responsible Public
Officer to Render Accounts before
Leaving the Country

This crime is committed by any public officer who

unlawfully leaves or attempts to leave the
Philippine Islands without securing a certificate
from the Insular Auditor showing that his accounts
have been finally settled.
Illegal Use of Public Funds or Property

This offense is committed by any public

officer who shall apply any public fund or
property under his administration to any
public use other than for which such fund or
property were appropriated by law or
ordinance, even if by reason of such
misapplication, no damage shall have
resulted to the public service.
 Failure to Make Delivery of Public
Funds or Property
This transgression is committed by any public
officer under obligation to make payment from
Government funds in his possession, who shall fail
to make such payment. It is also committed by any
public officer who, being ordered by competent
authority to deliver any property in his custody or
under his administration shall refuse to make such
delivery.
Removal, Concealment or Destruction
of Documents

This is committed by any public officer who shall

remove, destroy or conceal documents or papers
officially entrusted to him.
 Officer Breaking Seal

This is committed any public officer charged with

the custody of papers or property sealed by proper
authority, who shall break the seals or permit them
to be broken.
 Opening of Closed Documents

This offense is committed by any public officer

who, without proper authority, shall open or shall
permit to be opened any closed papers, documents
or objects entrusted to his custody.
Revelation of Secrets by an Officer

This is committed by any public officer who shall

reveal any secret known to him by reason of his
official capacity, or shall wrongfully deliver papers
or copies of papers of which he may have charge
and which should not be published.
Public Officer Revealing Secrets of
Private Individual

This crime is committed by any public officer to

whom the secrets of any private individual shall
become known by reason of his office who shall
reveal such secrets.
 Refusal of Assistance

This is committed by a public officer who, upon

demand from competent authority, shall fail to
lend his cooperation towards the administration of
justice or other public service, if such failure shall
result in serious damage to the public interest, or
to a third party. The same is committed even if
such failure does not result in serious damage to
the public interest, or to a third party.
Abandonment of Office or Position

The crime is committed by any public officer who,

before the acceptance of his resignation, shall
abandon his office to the detriment of the public
service.
 Abuses against Chastity
This crime is committed by:
1. any public officer who shall solicit or make
immoral or indecent advances to a woman
interested in matters pending before such officer
for decision, or with respect to which he is
required to submit a report to or consult with a
superior officer;
2. Any warden or other public officer directly
charged with the care and custody of prisoners or
persons under arrest who shall solicit or make
immoral or indecent advances to a woman under
his custody.
 Abandonment of Person in Danger and
Abandonment of One's Own Victim
This crime is committed by:
1. Any one who shall fail to render assistance to any person
whom he shall find in an uninhabited place wounded or
in danger of dying, when he can render such assistance
without detriment to himself, unless such omission shall
constitute a more serious offense.
2. Anyone who shall fail to help or render assistance to
another whom he has accidentally wounded or injured.
3. Anyone who, having found an abandoned child under
seven years of age, shall fail to deliver said child to the
authorities or to his family, or shall fail to take him to a
safe place.
 Abandoning a Minor

This crime is committed by anyone who shall

abandon a child under seven years of age, the
custody of which is incumbent upon him.
 Abandonment of Minor by Person
Entrusted with his Custody
Anyone who, having charge of the rearing or
education of a minor, shall deliver said minor to a
public institution or other persons, without the
consent of the one who entrusted such child to his
care or in the absence of the latter, without the
consent of the proper authorities shall be liable for
this offense.
 Exploitation of Minors
This is committed by:
1. Any person who shall cause any boy or girl under sixteen
years of age to perform any dangerous feat of balancing,
physical strength, or contortion.
2. Any person who, being an acrobat, gymnast, rope-walker,
diver, wild-animal tamer or circus manager or engaged in
a similar calling, shall employ in exhibitions of these
kinds children under sixteen years of age who are not his
children or descendants.
3. Any person engaged in any of the callings enumerated in
the next paragraph preceding who shall employ any
descendant of his under twelve years of age in such
dangerous exhibitions.
1. Any ascendant, guardian, teacher or person entrusted in
any capacity with the care of a child under sixteen years
of age, who shall deliver such child gratuitously to any
person following any of the callings enumerated in
paragraph 2 hereof, or to any habitual vagrant or beggar.
2. Any person who shall induce any child under sixteen years
of age to abandon the home of its ascendants, guardians,
curators, or teachers to follow any person engaged in any
of the callings mentioned in paragraph 2 hereof, or to
accompany any habitual vagrant or beggar.
 Qualified Theft
The crime of theft is committed by the taking of a personal
property belonging to another, without consent of the
owner, with the intent to gain and the taking was
accomplished without violence or intimidation against the
person or force upon things. Qualified theft is committed if
the perpetrator is the domestic servant of the owner of the
thing stolen, or with grave abuse of confidence, or if the
property stolen is motor vehicle, mail matter or large cattle
or consists of coconuts taken from the premises of the
plantation or fish taken from a fishpond or fishery, or if
property is taken on the occasion of fire, earthquake,
typhoon, volcanic eruption, or any other calamity, vehicular
accident or civil disturbance.
 Acts of Lasciviousness
This crime is perpetrated by any person committing any acts
of lasciviousness or lewdness to another person of either sex
by the use of force or intimidation, or when the offended
party is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious, or
when the offended party is under twelve years of age.
Lascivious conduct is the intentional touching, either
directly or through clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin,
breast, inner thigh, or buttocks, or the introduction of any
object into the genitalia, anus or mouth, of any person
whether of the same or opposite sex, with an intent to
abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the
sexual desire of any person, bestiality, masturbation,
lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of a
person.
 Qualified Seduction
Seduction is committed by any person having carnal
knowledge with a woman over twelve years and
under eighteen years of age.
Qualified seduction is perpetrated through the
seduction of a virgin over twelve and less than
eighteen years of age, by any person in public
authority, priest, home-servant, domestic,
guardian, teacher, or any person who, in any
capacity, shall be entrusted with the education or
custody of the woman seduced.
 Simple Seduction

Simple seduction is committed through seduction of

a woman who is single or a widow of good
reputation, over twelve but under eighteen years
of age, by means of deceit.
 Corruption of Minors

This crime is committed by any person who shall

promote or facilitate the prostitution or corruption
of persons underage to satisfy the lust of another.
 Premature Marriages
Any widow who shall marry within three hundred
and one day from the date of the death of her
husband, or before having delivered if she shall
have been pregnant at the time of his death, shall
be liable for the crime of premature marriage
The same applies to any woman whose marriage
shall have been annulled or dissolved, if she shall
marry before her delivery or before the expiration
of the period of three hundred and one day after
the legal separation.
 Libel
A libel is public and malicious imputation of a
crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or
any act, omission, condition, status, or
circumstance tending to cause the dishonor,
discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical
person, or to blacken the memory of one who is
dead.
A libel can be committed by means of writing,
printing, lithography, engraving, radio,
phonograph, painting, theatrical exhibition,
cinematographic exhibition, or any similar means.
Every defamatory imputation is presumed to be
malicious, even if it be true, if no good intention and
justifiable motive for making it is shown, except in the
following cases:
1. A private communication made by any person to
another in the performance of any legal, moral or
social duty; and
2. A fair and true report, made in good faith, without
any comments or remarks, of any judicial,
legislative or other official proceedings which are
not of confidential nature, or of any statement,
report or speech delivered in said proceedings, or
of any other act performed by public officers in the
exercise of their functions.
 Threatening to Publish and Offer to
Present such Publication for a
Compensation

This crime is committed by any person who

threatens another to publish a libel concerning him
or the parents, spouse, child, or other members of
the family of the latter or upon anyone who shall
offer to prevent the publication of such libel for a
compensation or money consideration.
 Slander

Slander or oral defamation is committed by means

of spoken or verbal malicious imputation of a
crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or
any act, omission, condition, status, or
circumstance tending to cause the dishonor,
discredit, or contempt of a natural or juridical
person, or to blacken the memory of one who is
dead.
 Slander by deed

This crime is committed by any person who shall

perform any act which shall cast dishonor, discredit
or contempt upon another person.
BILL OF RIGHTS
 Concept of a bill of rights

A Bill of Rights may be defined as a declaration and enumeration of a person’s

rights and privileges which the Constitution is designed to protect against
violations by the government, or by an individual or groups of individuals. It is a
charter of liberties for the individual and a limitation upon the power of the
State.
Its basis is the social importance accorded to the individual in a democratic or
republican state, the belief that every human being has intrinsic dignity and
worth which must be respected and safeguarded.
The new Constitution incorporates in Article III all the basic rights in the former
Charter. It also awards new rights to the individual.
 Classes of Rights
The rights that a citizen of a democratic state enjoys may be
classified into:
(1) Natural rights – They are those rights possessed by every citizen
without being granted by the State for they are given to man by
God as a human being created to His image so that he may live a
happy life. Examples are the right to life and the right to love;
(2) Constitutional rights – They are those rights which are conferred
and protected by the Constitution. Since they are part of the
fundamental law, they cannot be modified or taken away by the
law-making body; and
(3) Statutory rights – They are those rights which are provided by laws
promulgated by the law-making body and, consequently, may be
abolished by the same body. Examples are the right to receive a
minimum wage and the right to inherit property.
Classification of Constitutional Rights
The rights secured by the Constitution may be classified as follows:
(1) Political rights – They are such rights of the citizens which give
them the power to participate, directly or indirectly, in the
establishment or administration of the government. Among these
rights are the right of citizenship (Art. IV.), the right of suffrage
(Art. V.), and the right to information on matters of public concern
(Sec. 7.);
(2) Civil rights – They are those rights which the law will enforce at
the instance of private individuals for the purpose of securing to
them the enjoyment of their means of happiness. They include the
rights against involuntary servitude (Sec. 18[2].) and imprisonment
for non-payment of debt or a poll tax (Sec. 20.); the constitutional
rights of the accused (Secs. 11 to 22); the social and economic
rights (infra.); liberty of abode and for changing the same (Sec.
6.); etc.
(3) Social and economic rights – They include those rights which
are intended to insure the well-being and economic security of the
individual. The right to property (Sec. 1.) and the right to just
compensation for private property taken for public use (Sec. 9.)
belong more appropriately under this third category of rights.
They are also provided in the articles dealing with the promotion
of social justice (Art. XIII.), the conservation and utilization of
natural resources (Art. XII, Sec. 2.), and the promotion of
education (Art. XIV, Secs. 1, 2, 5 [4, 5].), science and technology
(Ibid., Secs. 10-13.), and arts and culture. (Ibid., Secs. 17, 18.)
(4) Rights of the Accused – They are the (civil) rights intended for
the protection of a person accused of any crime, like the right to
presumption of innocence, the right to a speedy, impartial, and
public trial, and the right against cruel, degrading, or inhuman
punishment. The provisions (Secs. 11 to 22.) particularly and
directly dealing with these rights are discussed subsequently.
LAW ON PUBLIC OFFICERS
Three-fold Responsibility of Public
Officers

A public officer is under a three-fold responsibility

for violation of a duty or for a wrongful act or
omission: civil, criminal and administrative.
“It is a basic principle of law on public officers that a public
official or employee is under a three-fold responsibility for
violation of a duty or for a wrongful act or omission. This
simply means that a public officer may be held civilly,
criminally, and administratively liable for a wrongful doing.
Thus, if such violation or wrongful act results in damages to
an individual, the public officer may be held civilly liable to
reimburse the injured party. If the law violated attaches a
penal sanction, the erring officer may be punished
criminally. Finally, such violation may also lead to
suspension, removal from office, or other administrative
sanctions. This administrative liability is separate and
distinct from the penal and civil liabilities.” (Tecson vs.
Sandiganbayan, G.R. No. 123045, November 16, 1999).