RPC Effectivity, A1 Revised Penal Code

1. Concept

Act No. 3815 or the Revised Penal Code took effect on January 1, 1932.

a. Legal basis

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

(Revised Penal Code)

While the Revised Penal Code took effect on January 1, 1932, it was enacted on December 8, 1930 and signed the same day.

2. History

The following is a history of the Revised Penal Code.

a. Precursor: Spanish 1870 Spanish Código Penal

Prior to the Revised Penal Code, the penal law then in force in the Philippines was the 1870 Spanish Código Penal as the country was then a former colony of the Spanish Empire.

3. Parts

The Revised Penal Code is divided into two (2) Books, namely:

1) Book One; and

2) Book Two.

a. Book One

Book One provides for introduction or preliminary provisions, as well as a general framework on felonies and criminal liability, who are considered offenders, how penalties are imposed, how criminal liability and civil liability are extinguished, and how civil liability may arise from a crime or offense.

1) 5 Titles

Book One of the Revised Penal Code is divided into five Titles, namely:

Title One: Felonies and criminal liability

• Chapter One: Felonies

• Chapter Two: Justifying Circumstances and Circumstances which Exempt from Criminal Liability

• Chapter Three: Circumstance which Mitigate Criminal Liability

• Chapter Four: Circumstance which Aggravate...