Criminal Liability Basics: Stages, Participants and Penalties

Article 3 says acts and omissions punishable by law are felonies. A felony can be committed by deceit (dolo), meaning with deliberate intent, or by fault (culpa), meaning through imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight or lack of skill. Reckless driving that kills someone is an example of the second kind. In Ivler v. Modesto-San Pedro (2010), the Supreme Court held that one reckless act is one offense, however many people or things it harms.

Article 4 says who is criminally liable:

The second paragraph is the "impossible crime". In Intod v. Court of Appeals (1992), an armed group fired into a bedroom to kill a woman who was in fact in another city, and no one was in the room. The Court held it an impossible crime, not attempted murder.

Article 6 punishes a felony at three stages:

A felony is attempted when the offender starts it directly by overt acts but does not perform all the acts of execution, for a reason other than his own spontaneous desistance. The penalty goes down by one degree for a frustrated felony and by two degrees for an attempted one. Some crimes have no frustrated stage: in Valenzuela v. People (2007), the full Court held that theft is either attempted or consummated. See Attempted, frustrated and consummated crimes compared and frustrated felony.

Agreeing to commit a crime is not punished by itself, unless a specific article punishes it. Article 8 says a conspiracy exists when two or more persons agree to commit a felony and decide to commit it. See conspiracy.

Article 16 says principals, accomplices and accessories are liable for grave and less grave felonies, and only principals and accomplices for light felonies. Article 17 defines principals:

An accomplice cooperates by previous or simultaneous acts that are not indispensable (Article 18). An accessory does not take part in the crime but, knowing it was committed, helps afterwards by profiting from it, hiding the evidence, or in certain serious cases harboring the offender (Article 19). Principals get the full penalty, and the penalty goes down for accomplices and accessories.

Close relatives who become accessories are exempt from the penalties under Article 20, except when they profit or help the offender profit from the crime. A separate law, Presidential Decree No. 1829, punishes knowingly harboring or concealing a person to prevent his arrest and prosecution, and its text has no such exemption. See Principal vs accomplice vs accessory and Is hiding a relative who committed a crime also a crime?

• Justifying circumstances. Article 11 lists six situations where the act is not a crime at all. The best known is self-defense: unlawful aggression by the other person, reasonable necessity of the means used to stop it, and no sufficient provocation from the one defending. The same article protects people who defend a relative or a stranger. The person who claims self-defense must prove it. See Self-defense in the Philippines and unlawful aggression. In People v. Genosa (2004), the full Court said battered woman syndrome can support self-defense, but found it was not fully proven in that case.
• [Aggravating circumstances](/law/glossary/aggravating-circumstance). Article 14 lists twenty-one circumstances, such as treachery, evident premeditation and recidivism, that make liability heavier within the range the law sets. See aggravating circumstance.
• Alternative circumstances. Under Article 15, relationship, intoxication and the offender's degree of education can lower or raise the penalty. Being drunk is never a full excuse. In Ilayat v. People (2025), the full Court said the intoxication itself must first be proven, not just the drinking. See Is being drunk a defense?

When one act produces two or more grave or less grave felonies, or one crime is a necessary means to commit another, Article 48 imposes one penalty, that of the most serious crime, in its maximum period. See complex crime.

Article 27 sets the duration of each prison penalty:

The death penalty can no longer be imposed, because Republic Act No. 9346 prohibits it. The full list is in the duration of penalties table. Time spent in jail before conviction is credited under Article 29: see Is jail time before conviction deducted?

• [Probation](/law/glossary/probation) is granted by the trial court instead of prison, under Presidential Decree No. 968 as amended by Republic Act No. 10707. The application must be filed within the period to appeal, and some offenders are excluded. See Who can apply for probation? and Colinares v. People (2011).
• Parole is granted by the parole board to a prisoner who has served the minimum of an indeterminate sentence under Act No. 4103. See Probation vs parole.
• Good conduct time allowance can shorten time in prison: see GCTA.

Article 89 lists the ways criminal liability is totally extinguished, among them the death of the convict, service of the sentence, amnesty, absolute pardon, prescription of the crime and prescription of the penalty. If the accused dies before final judgment, the criminal case ends; in People v. Bayotas (1994), the Supreme Court said damages survive only if based on a source other than the crime, through a separate civil case. See Does a criminal case end if the accused dies?

Crimes prescribe after periods set by Article 90, from twenty years for the gravest crimes down to two months for light offenses. See How many years before a criminal case prescribes? and the prescription of crimes table. An affidavit of desistance by the complainant is not on the list and does not by itself end a case: see Affidavit of desistance.

These are made-up examples to show how the rules work. They are not advice for any real case.

Leo stabs Ramon, who survives only because of quick surgery. Leo did everything needed to kill, and the death did not happen because of a cause independent of his will. Under Article 6, that is a frustrated felony, punished one degree lower than the consummated crime.

Mark drives the car for two friends who rob a store. If the robbery could not have been done without his help, Article 17(3) may make him a principal. If his help was given before or during the robbery but was not indispensable, he may be an accomplice under Article 18. Which one applies, and whether the three acted under an agreement, is decided by the court on the evidence.

Rosa hides her son, who is wanted for a robbery, in her house. Under Article 20, as his mother she is exempt from the penalties for accessories under the Revised Penal Code, but PD 1829 has its own rule on harboring, and how the two rules apply together to a relative is a question for the courts.

Get a lawyer as soon as you are invited for questioning, arrested or charged, or before you file a criminal complaint. The stage of the crime, your role and the circumstances proven decide the penalty, and some defenses must be proven by the accused. If you cannot afford a lawyer, the Public Attorney's Office may help: see Free legal help in the Philippines.