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Taken from The Revised Penal Code Criminal Law by Luis B. Reyes Book One (2008 ed.)
Complete Defenses in Criminal Cases

1. Essential elements of the crime were not proved by the
prosecution
2. Justifying Circumstances (Art. 11)
3. Exempting Circumstances (Art. 12)
4. Case is covered by any absolutory cases
(Articles 6, 7, 20, 124, 280, 332, 247, 344 & Instigation)
5. Guilt of the accused is not proved beyond reasonable
doubt
6. Prescription of crimes (Art. 89)
7. Pardon by the offended party before the institution of
criminal action in crime against chastity (Art. 344)

[The Revised Penal Code, Luis Reyes, 2012 ed.; pp260-261)

Mitigating Circumstance

- the offender commits a crime
- there is criminal liability
- if present, the effect is to reduce penalty
- does not change the nature of the crime

Basis: Diminution of either freedom of action, intelligence, or
intent, or on the lesser perversity of the offender

Classes of Mitigating Circumstances

1. Ordinary Mitigating
- those enumerated in Article 13 of RPC (3-10)

2. Privileged Mitigating

a. Art. 68 Penalty to be imposed upon a person under
eighteen years of age
- Person over 15 but under 18 years of age who acted with
discernment (penalty shall be decreased by one period -
amended by R.A. 9344)

b. Art. 69 Penalty to be imposed when the crime committed
is not wholly excusable
- Lack of the conditions required in justifying and exempting
circumstances (penalty lower by one or two degrees than
what is provided by law)

c. Art. 64 Rules on the application of penalties which contain
three periods
- Two mitigating circumstances are present and no
aggravating circumstances (penalty next lower to what is
prescribed by law)

1 and 2 of Article 13 - PM

Specific Privileged Mitigating Circumstance
[PM applicable only to certain crimes]
- Slight Illegal Detention: Voluntary release of a person
detained within 3 days before the institution of a criminal
actions (Art. 268 (3))
- Abandonment in Adultery (Art. 333 (3)
- Intent to Conceal the Dishonor in Infanticide (Art. 255)

Art. 64 Special Mitigating Circumstance
(presence of two mitigating circumstances without the
presence of aggravating circumstance effect: reduces the
penalty to one degree lower)

Distinction:
Ordinary Mitigating
- CAN be offset by any aggravating circumstance
- produces the effect of lowering the penalty to its minimum
(when not offset by aggravating circumstance)


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Taken from The Revised Penal Code Criminal Law by Luis B. Reyes Book One (2008 ed.)
Privileged Mitigating
- CANNOT be offset by any aggravating circumstance
- produces the effect of lowering the penalty by one or two
degrees

1. Incomplete Justifying or Exempting Circumstances

Justifying and Exempting Circumstances (may give place to
motivation)
- Self-defense
- Defense of relatives
- Defense of stranger
- State of necessity
- Performance of duty
- Obedience to order of superior
- Minority over 9 and under 15 years of age
- Causing injury

Requisites necessary to justify the act are not attendant:

a. Incomplete self-defense, defense of relatives and defense
of strangers
- applies only when there is unlawful aggression
(indispensable) and other two requisites are absent

b. Incomplete justifying circumstance of avoidance of
greater evil or injury
- first requisite (evil sought to be avoided actually exist) but
other two requisites are absent

c. Incomplete justifying circumstance of performance of
duty
- Landmark case: People vs. Oanis (Balagtas was killed by
the accused. They latter acted in performance of a duty *to
arrest Balagtas* but they exceeded in the fulfillment of such
duty)

d. Incomplete justifying circumstance of obedience to an
order

2. Under Eighteen or Over Seventy Years Old

- impliedly repealed by R.A. 9344

Elements:
a. the minor is above 15 but under 18 years of age
b. such minor acted with discernment

Penalty: Diversion program (program that a child in conflict
with the law is required to undergo after he or she is found
responsible for an offense)

Contract of diversion entered into during conferencing,
mediation and conciliation

Over 70 years of age ordinary mitigating circumstance

Basis: Diminution of intelligence (condition of voluntariness)

3. No Intention to Commit So Grave a Wrong

Intention an internal state; must be judged by external
acts; may be judged by the weapon used, the injury
inflicted and the manner inflicted

Notes:
- When the offender uses brute force, there is intent to kill.
- Lack of intent to kill in physical injuries is not mitigating.

Not applicable to:
a. culpable felonies
b. felonies where intention is not material
The Law Chic | www.thelawchic.com
Taken from The Revised Penal Code Criminal Law by Luis B. Reyes Book One (2008 ed.)
c. felonies not resulting to physical injuries or material harm
d. anti-hazing law

4. Provocation or Threat

Provocation unjust or improper conduct or act of the
offended party, capable of exciting, inciting or irritating any
one

Requisites:
a. sufficient provocation adequate to excite a person to
commit the wrong
b. must originate from the offended party
c. the provocation was immediate to the act (no time
interval)

Note: There is no mitigating circumstance when the
deceased was killed after he had fled. (Two stages)

Basis: Diminution of intelligence and intent


Requisites of sufficient threat:
a. there must be a threat on the part of the offended party
b. must be sufficient
c. must immediately precede the criminal act committed by
the offender

5. Vindication of Grave Offense

Requisites:
a. there be a grave offense done to the one committing the
felony, his spouse, ascendants, descendants, legitimate,
natural or adopted brothers or sisters, or relatives by affinity
within the same degree
b. felony is committed in the vindication of the grave offense

Note: A lapse of time is allowed between the vindication
and the doing of the grave wrong (proxima). It must be
shown that there was no interruption from the time the
offense was committed to the vindication thereof. If the
person has sufficient time to recover his or her serenity, then
there is no mitigating circumstance of vindication of grave
offense.

Distinction between provocation and vindication:

Provocation
- made directly to the person committing the felony
- the cause that brought the provocation need not to be a
grave offense
- must immediately precede the act

Vindication
- may be committed also against offenders relatives
- offended party must have done a grave offense to the
person committing the felony or his relatives
- may be proximate (time interval allowed)

Grave offenses (concerns the honor of the person)
- killing of a relative
- sarcastic remark (calling the offender as tyrant)

Landmark case: U.S. vs. Ampar (G.R. No. 12883 / p. 283, 2008
ed.)

Basis: Diminution of the conditions of voluntariness

Note:
- Vindication of a grave offense and passion or obfuscation
cannot be counted separately and independently


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Taken from The Revised Penal Code Criminal Law by Luis B. Reyes Book One (2008 ed.)

6. Passion or Obfuscation

- the accused acted upon an impulse
-impulse must be so powerful that it naturally produced
passion or obfuscation in him

Reason why it is mitigating: Passion and obfuscation make a
person lose his self-control which diminishes the exercise of
his will power

Requisites:
a. the victim committed an unlawful and unjust act which
produced passion or obfuscation
b. passion must arise from lawful sentiments (not from spirit of
lawlessness or revenge)
c. passion and obfuscation caused lost of control and
reason on the part of the person who committed the felony
(offender)
d. there is no sufficient time for the offender to recover his
normal equanimity

Note:
- There is no passion or obfuscation if half an hour, twenty
four hours or several hours have passed.
- Vengeance is not a lawful sentiment.
- Vindication of grave offense cannot co-exist with passion
and obfuscation.
- Passion and obfuscation cannot co-exist with: treachery,
evident pre-meditation

Landmark case:
- U.S. vs Hicks (14 Phil. 217 / p. 290, 2008 ed.) The accused
killed the deceased (common-law wife) because of
jealousy. There is no mitigating circumstance because the
lose of self-control did not arise from legitimate feelings.

Basis: The offender suffers a diminution of his intelligence and
intent.

Distinction between passion or obfuscation and irresistible
force:

Passion or obfuscation
- mitigating circumstance
- cannot give rise to irresistible force
- is in the offender himself
- arise from lawful sentiments

Irresistible force
- exempting circumstance
- requires physical force
- must come from a third person
- unlawful

Distinction between passion or obfuscation and
provocation:
Passion or obfuscation
- produced by an impulse which may be caused by
provocation
- must immediately precede the commission of the crime

Provocation
- comes from the injured party
- the office which engenders perturbation of mind need not
be immediate

7. Surrender and Confession of Guilt

Two mitigating circumstances:
a. voluntary surrender to a person in authority or his agents
b. voluntary confession before the court prior to the
presentation of evidence for the prosecution

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Taken from The Revised Penal Code Criminal Law by Luis B. Reyes Book One (2008 ed.)
Requisites of voluntary surrender:
a. offender had not been actually arrested
b. offender surrendered himself to a person in authority or
to latters agent
c. surrender was voluntary

Voluntariness
- spontaneous (acting without stimulus)
- the accused surrendered unconditionally to the authorities
or their agents because
a. he acknowledges his guilt; or
b. he wishes to save the authorities and their agents the
trouble and expenses necessarily incurred in the search and
capture

Note:
- Surrender of weapon cannot be equated with voluntary
surrender.

Person in authority
- a public officer who has the power to govern and execute
the laws (see Art, 152 of RPC)

Requisites of plea of guilty:
a. offender spontaneously confessed his guilt
b. confession of guilt was made in an open court
(extrajudicial confession not allowed)
c. confession of guilt was made prior to the presentation of
evidence for the prosecution (court of first instance:
municipal court)

Basis: Lesser perversity of the offender

When is plea of guilty not mitigating? When the three
requisites are not complete, in culpable felonies and in
crimes punished by special laws.

8. Physical Defect

- deaf and dumb; blind
- must restrict means of action, defense or communication
with fellow beings

Basis: Diminution of that element of voluntariness

9. Illness of the Offender

- refers only to disease of pathological state that trouble the
conscience or will
- includes to illness of the mind and disorders

Requisites:
a. illness of the offender must diminish the exercise of his will-
power
b. such illness should not deprive the offender of
consciousness of his acts

Basis: Diminution of intelligence and intent

10. Similar and Analogous Circumstances

- Over 60 years old with failing eyesight similar to over 70
years of age mentioned in par. 2
- Impulse of jealous feeling similar to passion and
obfuscation
- Outraged feeling of creditor similar to passion and
obfuscation
- Manifestations of Battered Woman Syndrome analogous
to an illness that diminishes the exercise of will power
- Esprit de corps similar to passion or obfuscation
- Voluntary restitution of stolen property similar to voluntary
surrender
- Extreme poverty and necessity similar to incomplete
justification based on state of necessity
The Law Chic | www.thelawchic.com
Taken from The Revised Penal Code Criminal Law by Luis B. Reyes Book One (2008 ed.)

What are NOT mitigating:
- killing the wrong man
- not resisting arrest or yielding to arrest without the slightest
attempt to resist

Circumstances which are neither exempting nor mitigating:
a. mistake in the blow (aberratio ictus)
b. mistake in the identity of the victim
c. entrapment of the accused
d. accused is over 18 years of age
e. performance of a righteous action

















____________________
Notes compiled by The Law Chic. Taken from The Revised
Penal Code Criminal Law by Luis B. Reyes (Book One) 2008
ed.