Crimes Against Persons

The map of Title Eight

Crimes against persons occupy Title Eight of Book 2 of the Revised Penal Code. The examiner rarely asks you to recite an article number; instead you get a set of facts and must name the crime. The trick is to sort the killings by a single question at a time: Who was the victim? Was there a qualifying circumstance? How serious was the injury? Master those three filters and the whole title falls into place.

Killings: relationship first, then qualifiers

Start with the relationship between offender and victim, because it can change everything.

• Parricide (Art. 246) is committed by killing one's father, mother, or child (legitimate or illegitimate), any other legitimate ascendant or descendant, or one's spouse. Relationship is an element, so parricide needs no treachery. Its penalty is reclusion perpetua to death.
• Infanticide (Art. 255) is the killing of a child less than three days (72 hours) old. If the mother, or the maternal grandparents, kill the newborn to conceal dishonor, the penalty is lowered.

If no special relationship exists, ask about qualifying circumstances.

• Murder (Art. 248) is an unlawful killing attended by a qualifying circumstance such as treachery, evident premeditation, cruelty, or price or reward. Its penalty is reclusion perpetua to death. A useful rule: one qualifying circumstance elevates the killing to murder; any additional aggravating circumstance is treated as generic, not as a second qualifier.
• Homicide (Art. 249) is the unlawful killing that is neither parricide, murder, nor infanticide and carries no qualifying circumstance. Its penalty is reclusion temporal.

A special rule softens one tragic scenario. Under Article 247 (death under exceptional circumstances), a legally married person who surprises the spouse in the act of sexual intercourse with another and kills or injures either of them is punished only with destierro (banishment), not imprisonment. This is an absolutory-type rule based on the passion of the moment.

Physical injuries: measured by the harm

When the victim survives, the crime is graded by the gravity of the injury.

Crime	Article	Test of gravity
Serious physical injuries	Art. 263	Victim becomes insane, imbecile, impotent, or blind; loses a body part or its use; is deformed; or is incapacitated for more than 90 days
Less serious physical injuries	Art. 265	Incapacity or medical attendance of 10 to 30 days
Slight physical injuries	Art. 266	Incapacity or medical attendance of 1 to 9 days, or no incapacity at all
Mutilation	Art. 262	Intentional lopping off of a body part, gravest when it is an organ for reproduction

Note the sharp line between mutilation and serious physical injuries: mutilation requires a deliberate intent to cut off or deprive the victim of a specific body part.

Rape under the modern framework

RA 8353 (the Anti-Rape Law of 1997) reclassified rape from a crime against chastity to a crime against persons and inserted it as Article 266-A. There are two modes:

1. Rape by carnal knowledge, committed by a man who has carnal knowledge of a woman through force, threat, or intimidation, when she is deprived of reason or unconscious, through fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority, or when she is under the statutory age.
2. Rape by sexual assault, committed by inserting the penis into another person's mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument or object into the genital or anal orifice. This mode can be committed against a man or a woman.

Because rape is now a crime against persons, its penalties in Article 266-B rise with aggravating facts, such as the use of a deadly weapon or commission by two or more persons.

Exam-day strategy

• For any killing, run the filters in order: relationship (parricide or infanticide), then qualifier (murder), then default to homicide.
• The magic age for infanticide is under 72 hours. Older victims fall under parricide, murder, or homicide.
• The spouse who kills upon catching the other in the act gets only destierro under Article 247.
• Grade surviving victims by the healing period: 1 to 9 days is slight, 10 to 30 days is less serious, beyond that or with grave effects is serious.
• Keep the two modes of rape straight: carnal knowledge versus sexual assault.