Article 1. Time when Act takes effect.

- This Code shall take effect on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and
thirty-two. (January 1, 1932)

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:

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

Counterfeit 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;

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

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

Crimes 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.

Article 3. Definitions. - Acts and omissions punishable by law are felonies (delitos).

Felonies are committed not only be 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 an 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
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 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.

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 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.

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: 6

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

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. Any one who acts in defense of the person or rights of his SADLNAR spouse, ascendants, descendants, or legitimate,
natural or adopted brothers or sisters, or his relatives by affinity in the same degrees and those 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 revocation 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 not 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: 7

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 Art. 80 of this Code.

When such minor is adjudged to be criminally irresponsible, the court, in conformably 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 Art. 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 act under the compulsion of 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 insuperable cause.

Article 13. Mitigating circumstances. - The following are mitigating circumstances;

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

2. That the offender is under eighteen year of age or over seventy years. In the case of the minor, he shall be proceeded
against in accordance with the provisions of Art. 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, 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 communications 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 the consciousness of his acts.

10. And, finally, any other circumstances of a similar nature and analogous to those above mentioned.
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 or with insult to the public authorities.

3. That the act be committed with insult or in disregard of the respect due the offended party on account of his rank, age,
or sex, or that is 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 night time, 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 by 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 international
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 evidence 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.