Reported by: Kim Zeus Ga-an

ARSON AND OTHER CRIMES INVOLVING DESTRUCTIONS

(Note: PD 1613 expressly repealed or amended Arts 320-326, but PD 1744 revived Art 320)
A. ELEMENTS OF BURNING ONES PROPERTY AS A MEANS TO COMMIT ARSON
1. That the offender set fire to or destroyed his own property
2. That the purpose of the offender in doing so was to commit arson or to cause a great destruction
3. That the property belonging to another was burned or destroyed
B. ELEMENTS OF ARSON
1. That the property burned is the exclusive property of the offender
2. That (a) the purpose of the offender is burning it is to defraud or cause damage to another or (b) prejudice
is actually caused, or (c) the thing burned is a building in an inhabited place
C. DESTRUCTIVE ARSON. THE PENALTY OF RECLUSION TEMPORAL IN ITS MAXIMUM
PERIOD TO RECLUSION PERPETUA SHALL BE IMPOSED IF THE PROPERTY BURNED IS ANY
OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. Any ammunition factory and other establishment where explosives, inflammable or
combustible materials are stored.
2. Any archive, museum, whether public or private, or any edifice devoted to culture, education
or social services.
3. Any church or place of worship or other building where people usually assemble.
4. Any train, airplane or any aircraft, vessel or watercraft, or conveyance for transportation of
persons or property
4. Any building where evidence is kept for use in any legislative, judicial, administrative or
other official proceedings.
5. Any hospital, hotel, dormitory, lodging house, housing tenement, shopping center, public or
private market, theater or movie house or any similar place or building.
6. Any building, whether used as a dwelling or not, situated in a populated or congested area.
D. SPECIAL AGGRAVATING CIRCUMSTANCES IN ARSON. THE PENALTY IN ANY CASE OF
ARSON SHALL BE IMPOSED IN ITS MAXIMUM PERIOD;
1. If committed with intent to gain;
2. If committed for the benefit of another;
3. If the offender is motivated by spite or hatred towards the owner or occupant of the property
burned;
4. If committed by a syndicate.
The offense is committed by a syndicate if its planned or carried out by a group of three
(3) or more persons.

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E. PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF ARSON. ANY OF THE FOLLOWING CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL

CONSTITUTE PRIMA FACIE EVIDENCE OF ARSON:
1. If the fire started simultaneously in more than one part of the building or establishment.
2. If substantial amount of flammable substances or materials are stored within the building
note necessary in the business of the offender nor for household us.
3. If gasoline, kerosene, petroleum or other flammable or combustible substances or materials
soaked therewith or containers thereof, or any mechanical, electrical, chemical, or electronic
contrivance designed to start a fire, or ashes or traces of any of the foregoing are found in the
ruins or premises of the burned building or property.
4. If the building or property is insured for substantially more than its actual value at the time
of the issuance of the policy.
4. If during the lifetime of the corresponding fire insurance policy more than two fires have
occurred in the same or other premises owned or under the control of the offender and/or
insured.
5. If shortly before the fire, a substantial portion of the effects insured and stored in a building
or property had been withdrawn from the premises except in the ordinary course of business.
6. If a demand for money or other valuable consideration was made before the fire in
exchange for the desistance of the offender or for the safety of the person or property of the
victim.
Standing alone, unexplained or uncontradicted, any of those circumstances is sufficient to
establish the fact of arson.
Palattao notes:
Arson is defined as the intentional or malicious destruction of a property by fire.
Legal effect if death results from arson.
The crime committed is still arson. Death is absorbed in the crime of arson but the penalty
to be imposed ranges from reclusion perpetua to death. (Sec. 5, P.D. No. 1613)
How arson is established.
Arson is established by proving the corpus delicti, usually in the form of circumstancial
evidence such as the criminal agency, meaning the substance used, like gasoline,
kerosene or other form of bustible materials which caused the fire. It can also be in the
form of electrical wires, mechanical, chemical or electronic contrivance designed to start a
fire; ashes or traces of such objects which are found in the ruins of the burned premises.

Notes:
If the crime of arson was employed by the offender as a means to kill the offended party ,
the crime committed is murder. The burning of the property as the means to kill the
victim is what is contemplated by the word fire under Article 248 which qualifies the
crime to murder. (People vs. Villarosa, 54 O. G. 3482)
When the burning of the property was done by the offender only to cause damage but the
arson resulted to death of a person, the crime committed is still arson because the
death of the victim is a mere consequence and not the intention of the offender. (People
vs. Paterno, 47 O. G. 4600)

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There is no special complex crime of arson with homicide. What matters in resolving cases
involving intentional arson is the criminal intent of the offender.
There is such a crime as reckless imprudence resulting in the commission of arson. When
the arson results from reckless imprudence and it leads to death, serious physical
injuries and damage to the property of another, the penalty to be imposed shall not be
for the crime of arson under P. D. No. 1613 but rather, the penalty shall be based on
Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code as a felony committed by means of culpa.
Destructive Arson, distinguished from simple arson under PD no. 1613
The nature of Destructive Arson is dstinguished from Simple Arson by the degree of
perversity or viciousness of the criminal offender. Destructive Arson are characterized as
heinous crimes. On the ther hand, acts committed uner PD No. 1613 constituting Simple
Arson are crimes with a lesser degree of perversity and viciousness that the law punishes
with a lesser penalty. Simple Arson contemplates crimes with less significant social,
economic, political and national security implications than Destructive Arson.
Attempted, frustrated and consummated arson.
1. A person, intending to burn a wooden structure, collects some rags, soaks them in
gasoline and places them beside the wooden wall of the building. When he is about
to light a match to set fire to the rags, he discovered by another who chases him
away.
The crime committed is attempted arson, because the offender commences
the commission of the crime directly by overt acts but he does not perform all the
acts of execution (setting fire) due to the timely intervention of another who chases
away the offender.
2. If that person is able to light or set fire to the rags but the fire was put out before
any part of the building was burned, it is frustrated. (US v. Valdez)
3. But if before the fire was put out, it had burned a part of the building, it is
consummated.
Any charging of the wood of a building, whereby the fiber of wood is
destroyed, is sufficient. It is not necessary that the wood should be ablaze.

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