Revised Penal Code Brief Digestion

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.

Digest:

Self Defense w/o damage to the attacker, but with unlawful acts

3 Elements must be present to consider justified:

1. Aggressiveness of the attacker committing the felony

2. The action employed must be reasonable according to the prevention of damages
3. The one who was being attacked must not be the one who provoked the attacker or atleast
without the attacked knowing that the attacker has been provoked by the one attacked

2. Any one 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.

Digest:

consanguinity within the fourth civil degree - means parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, great-
great-grandparents, spouse, children, siblings, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-
grandchildren, nieces or nephews, grand-nieces or grand-nephews, aunts or uncles, great-aunts or
great-uncles, and first cousins by virtue of a blood relationship or marriage.

Defending a Relative

2 Elements must be present from the 1 st Paragraph:

1. Unlawful aggression;
2. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it;

Third element is not required in case the one who provoked the delito is the person who was attacked,
and the one defending is a relative.
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.

Digest:

Defending a Stranger

2 Elements must be present from the 1 st Paragraph:

1. Unlawful aggression;
2. Reasonable necessity of the means employed to prevent or repel it;

The other important thing is that the defendant must prove that he has no ulterior motive against the
attacker upon defending the one being attacked

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 actual 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.

Digest:

Self Defense with damage to the attacker

3 Elements must be present:

1. That the danger actually exists in reality and there is an attempt to execute it
2. That the action done by the attacked to prevent danger from the attacker is less grave than
what the attacker is about to do
3. That there are no other logical and harmless means to prevent the danger/last resort to survive

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

Digest:

Any person in authority who acted to fulfill his duty. e.g. A police officer who shot a holdaper

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

Digest:

e.g. A police officer who shot a holdaper commanded by the Chief of Police
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.

Digest:

lucid interval - Refers to a brief period during which an insane person regains sanity that is sufficient to
regain the legal capacity to contract, make a will and to act on his/her own behalf.

When the person who committed a crime is insane, the court will order his confinement to mental
hospital, but this decision is not considered a penalty by law (According to Article 24 paragraph 1)

1. (Article 24 paragraph 1) The arrest and temporary detention of accused persons, as well as
their detention by reason of insanity or imbecility, or illness requiring their confinement in a
hospital.

Paragraph 2-3 is repealed by R.A 9344 otherwise known as Juvenile Justice and Welfare Law

SEC. 6. Minimum Age of Criminal Responsibility. - A child fifteen (15) years of age or under at the time of
the commission of the offense shall be exempt from criminal liability. However, the child shall be
subjected to an intervention program pursuant to Section 20 of this Act.

A child above fifteen (15) years but below eighteen (18) years of age shall likewise be exempt from
criminal liability and be subjected to an intervention program, unless he/she has acted with
discernment, in which case, such child shall be subjected to the appropriate proceedings in accordance
with this Act.

The exemption from criminal liability herein established does not include exemption from civil liability,
which shall be enforced in accordance with existing laws.

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.

Digest:

- The act being performed must be a lawful act

- The act being performed must be with due care (Article 3 Definition)
 (Article 3 Definition) 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.

- The damage/injury must be proved to be caused by an accident

- The person who committed the crime must prove that he has no ulterior motive of causing the
damage

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

Digest:

e.g. Committing a crime to save yourself from a calamity (stealing, robbing)? Questionable,

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

Digest:

e.g. a person committing a crime because a gun is pointed on his head by another person

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

Digest:

Insuperable Cause – some motive which has lawfully, morally, or physically prevented a person to do
what the law commands

Example: The failure of a policeman to deliver the prisoner lawfully arrested to the judicial authorities
within the prescribed period because it was not possible to do so with practicable dispatch as the
prisoner was arrested in a distant place would constitute a non-performance of duty to an insuperable
cause.