History & applicability the Revised Penal Code (Act No. 3815)

The Revised Penal Code is a repository of general penal laws in the Philippines. Although numerous amendments have already been made to the Code and despite the fact that it was enacted in 1930 (the conditions of life during which era being very different from what we have this time), it still remains enforceable upon every citizen of the Republic of the Philippines anywhere within its territory.

It must be noted that the Revised Penal Code was enacted as Act Number 3815. At first, it was thought to be a comprehensive compendium of all Philippine penal laws but later on, some other criminal laws were enacted by Congress, due to changes in time and necessity, which are in the form of Republic Acts or what is more commonly known in law schools and in practice as special penal laws.

The basis of the Revised Penal Code was Spanish Código Penal. This Penal Code of Spain had been in force all over the Philippines from 1886 to 1930 (the year the Revised Penal Code took effect in the Philippines). It must be noted, moreover, that the date of the Code's enactment is different from the date of its effectivity.

Article 1. Time when Act takes effect. - This Code shall take effect on the first day of January, nineteen hundred and thirty-two.

The new Code was drafted by a committee created in 1927, and led by Judge Anacleto Díaz, who would later on be a justice in the Supreme Court, the Highest Tribunal of the Land. Instead of cropping up another criminal code, or engaging in a wholesale codification of all penal laws in the Philippines, the committee decided to merely revise the old penal code and simply appended other penal laws in effect and in force at the time and amended some provisions to adjust to the conditions obtaining then.

Like any other criminal code all over the world, Act 3815 makes criminal a lot of acts which are considered by the international community as inherently condemnable acts. This includes many forms of taking of a life like murder, homicide, infanticide or parricide. Controversially, the Code still penalizes abortion.

Rape is also a crime under the Code. Robbery, theft, treason and espionage are also a few. Interestingly, acts of infidelity are punished in two forms: adultery for women and concubinage for men. The Code makes an express and very academic definition of the elements that each crime is composed of, and the existence of all these elements have to be proved beyond reasonable doubt in order to secure conviction.

Anything shorter than proof beyond reasonable doubt would cause the acquittal of the accused. This is in consonant with the principle that criminal laws shall be liberally construed in favor of the accused and in case of doubt, the scales of justice shall be titled for the accused.Since the enactment of Act 3815, many other special criminal legislations have been passed by Congress to penalize other crimes mala prohibita (not inherently wrong but wrong only because prohibited) like illegal possession of firearms and the issuance of worthless checks. The most famous crimes now excluded from the Revised Penal Code are those on illegal drug use or trafficking, which are penalized under the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972 and later the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.

One of the unique aspects of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines is its portion devoted to circumstances affecting criminal liability: aggravating, exempting and mitigating circumstances. These circumstance, when appreciated by the court, can increase or decrease in certain grades the imposition of appropriate penalties provided for by law.

Penalties under the Revised Penal Code, in general, are categorized into three periods – the minimum period, the medium period, and the maximum period. In addition to establishing the elements of the crime, the State may also establish the presence of aggravating circumstances in order to set the penalty at the maximum period, or the defense may interpose mitigating circumstances to reduce the penalty to its minimum period. The presence of both aggravating and mitigating circumstance, or the absence of such circumstances, may generally result in the imposition of the penalty in its medium period.

Aside from the addition of acts or omissions punishable by law, the Congress, through Republic Acts, also made amendments to the provisions of Revised Penal Code. For instance, the Anti-Rape Law of 1997, RA 8353, reclassified rape from being a crime against chastity to a crime against persons.

Rape was defined as "having carnal knowledge of a woman" under enumerated circumstances that indicated lack of consent. Under the amendments, rape was reclassified as a crime against persons. The definition was further expanded from mere "carnal knowledge of a woman" and now included "an act of sexual assault by inserting his penis into other person's mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument or object, into the genital or anal orifice of another person." Additional circumstances by which the victim would be deemed incapable of giving valid consent were also integrated into this new definition of rape.

Because of the suspension of death penalty in 2006, the highest penalty currently imposable under the law is reclusion perpetua. Reclusion perpetua is from 20 years and 1 day to 40 years of imprisonment. The penalty of life imprisonment is not provided for in the Revised Penal Code, although it is imposed by other penal statutes such as the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act.