Robbery: Meaning in Philippine Law

See the full explanation of Article 293.

In Del Rosario v. People (2019), the Supreme Court listed four:

1. there is a taking of personal property;
2. the personal property belongs to another;
3. the taking is with intent to gain (animus lucrandi); and
4. the taking is with violence against or intimidation of persons or with force upon things.

The Revised Penal Code has two main groups:

• Robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons, punished by Article 294. The penalty depends on what happened: the heaviest level applies when a homicide is committed by reason or on occasion of the robbery, or when the robbery is accompanied by rape, intentional mutilation or arson.
• Robbery by force upon things, such as breaking into a house or building, in Article 299 and the articles after it.

In Peralta v. People (2023), the Supreme Court affirmed a conviction for simple robbery where money was demanded through intimidation.

In Del Rosario (2019), the Court said: "the distinguishing element between the crimes of robbery and theft is the use of violence or intimidation as a means of taking the property belonging to another; the element is present in the crime of robbery and absent in the crime of theft." Theft is defined in Article 308.

This matters in snatching cases. In Ablaza v. People (2018), necklaces were grabbed from a woman's neck by a motorcycle back rider. The Court said that grabbing points to the suddenness of the taking, which "cannot be readily equated with the employment of violence or physical force", and found the accused guilty of theft instead of robbery. In Del Rosario, a necklace snatched inside a jeepney was also held to be theft. Whether there was violence is decided on the evidence of each case.

Made-up illustration: Ramon points a knife at Celso on a dark street in Caloocan and tells him to hand over his phone. Celso gives it out of fear. The taking was done through intimidation, so this may be robbery under Article 294. If Ramon had instead slipped the phone out of Celso's bag without Celso noticing, it may be theft.

For penalties, see Robbery penalty in the Philippines and Theft penalty in the Philippines.