FELONIES

Definition - Acts and omissions punishable by the Revised Penal Code

Elements:

- There must be an ACT or OMISSION

- It must be punishable by the REVISED PENAL CODE
- Acts must be a result of Dolo (Malice) or Culpa (Fault, Negligence, Imprudence)

Act - A bodily movement tending to produce some effect in the external world.
- The act must be external, because internal acts are beyond the sphere of penal law.

Omission - is meant inaction, the failure to perform a positive duty which one is bound to do.
o Omission must be punishable by law.
 "nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege," that is, there is no crime where there is no
law punishing it.
o There is no law that punishes a person who does not report to the authorities the commission
of a crime which he witnessed, the omission to do so is not a felony.

Classification of Felonies

- Intentional Felonies
o The act or omission of the offender’s malicious.
o The act is performed with deliberate intent (malice)
o The offender has the intent to cause an injury to the other.
o When the offender, in performing an act or in incurring an omission, has the intention to do
an injury to the person, property, or right of another, such offender acts with malice. If the act
or omission is punished by the Revised Penal Code, he is liable for intentional felony.
o There are crimes which cannot be committed through imprudence or negligence, such as,
murder, treason, robbery, and malicious mischief.
o Requisites of dolo or malice.
 In order that an act or Omission may be considered as having been performed or
incurred with deliberate intent, the following requisites must concur:
 FREEDOM
o When a person acts without freedom, he is no longer a human
being but a tool; his liability is as much as that of the knife that
wounds, or of the torch that sets fire, or of the key that opens a
door, or of the ladder that is placed against the wall of a house in
committing robbery.
 Thus, a person who acts under the compulsion of an
irresistible force is exempt from criminal liability.
 So also, a person who acts under the impulse of an
uncontrollable fear of an equal or greater injury is exempt
from criminal liability
 INTELLIGENCE
o Without this power, necessary to determine the morality of human
acts, no crime can exist. Thus, the imbecile or the insane, and the
infant under nine years of age as, well as the minor over nine but
 less than fifteen years old and acting without discernment, have no
criminal liability, because they act without intelligence.
 INTENT
o Intent to commit the act with malice, being purely a mental
process, is presumed and the presumption arises from the proof of
the commission of an unlawful act.
o Overt Act
 Intent is a mental state, the existence of which is shown by the overt acts of a person.
 Intent to kill is difficult to prove, it being a mental act. But it can be deduced from the
external acts performed by a person. When the acts naturally produce a definite
result, courts are slow in concluding that some other result was intended.
o Mistake of fact
 Ignorance or mistake of fact relieves the accused from criminal liability (ignorantia
facti excusat).
 Mistake of fact is a misapprehension of fact on the part of the person who caused
injury to another. He is not, however, criminally liable, because he did not act with
criminal intent.
 An honest mistake of fact destroys the presumption of criminal intent which arises
upon the commission of a felonious act.
 Requisites of Mistake of Facts as a Defense:
 That the act done would have been lawful had the facts been as the accused
believed them to be.
 That the intention of the accused in performing the act should be lawful.
 That the mistake must be without fault or carelessness on the part of the
accused.
 The mistake must be without fault or carelessness on the part of the accused.
 When the accused is negligent, mistake of fact is not a defense.

- Culpable Felonies
o In culpable felonies, the act or omission of the offender is not malicious.
o The injury caused is “unintentional.”
o When an act is performed without malice, but at the same time punishable, though in a lesser
degree and with an equal result, an intermediate act which the Penal Code qualifies as
imprudence or negligence.
o A person who caused an injury, without intention to cause an evil, may be held liable for
culpable felony.

o Imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight or lack of skill.

 Imprudence
 Indicates a deficiency of action.
 If a person fails to take the necessary precaution to avoid injury to person
or damage to property, there is imprudence.
  Imprudence usually involves lack of skill.
 Negligence
 Indicates a deficiency of perception.
 If a person fails to pay proper attention and to use due diligence in
foreseeing the injury or damage impending to be caused, there is
negligence.
 Negligence usually involves lack of foresight.
 Reason for punishing acts of negligence (culpa).
 A man must use common sense, and exercise due reflection in all his acts; it
is his duty to be cautious, careful and prudent, if not from instinct, then
through fear of incurring punishment.
o Three reasons why the act or omission in felonies must be voluntary.
 Criminal liability is human free will.
 Since man is a rational being. One must prove that his case falls under Art. 12 to show
that his act or omission is not voluntary.
 In felonies by dolo, the act is performed with deliberate intent which must necessarily
be voluntary; and in felonies by culpa, the imprudence consists in voluntarily, but
without malice, doing or failing to do an act from which material injury results.