• No single act in the following cases:
a) When 2 persons are killed one after the other, by different acts, although these 2 killings were the result of a single criminal impulse, the different acts must be considered as distinct crimes.
b) When the acts are wholly different, not only in themselves, but also because they are directed against 2 different persons, as when one fires his gun twice in succession, killing one and injuring the other.
When an offender performed more than one act, although similar, if they result in separate crimes, there is no complex crime at all, instead, the offender shall be prosecuted for as many crimes as are committed under separate information.
When the single act brings about two or more crimes, the offender is punished with only one penalty, although in the maximum period, because he acted only with single criminal impulse. if there is only one criminal impulse which brought about the commission of the crime, the offender should be penalized only once. In this case it is not the singleness of the act but the singleness of the impulse that has been considered
• Light felonies produced by the same act should be treated and punished as separate offenses or may be absorbed by the grave felony.
Examples:
a) several light felonies resulting from one single act – not complex
Juan hit Pedro’s car, resulting in several light injuries and light felony of damage to property. No complex crime because the crime of slight physical injuries and damage to property are light felonies. There are as many crimes as there are persons injured w/ light physical injuries and as many penalties as there are light felonies committed, even though they are produced by a single act of the offender.
b) when the crime is committed by force or violence, slight physical injuries are absorbed.
• Examples of complex crimes:
a) Juan was a barangay captain who was killed while discharging his duty, the crime is a complex crime of homicide w/ assault upon a person of authority.
b) Juan raped Petra, causing her physical injuries w/c required a month’s worth of medical attention. This is a complex crime of rape w/ less serious physical injuries. The injuries were necessary to the commission of the rape.
• when in obedience to an order, several accused simultaneously shot many persons, without evidence how many each killed, there is only a single offense, there being a single criminal impulse.
Effect of conspiracy in the commission of a complex crime. When a conspiracy animates several persons in the attainment of a single purpose, and in the process, several persons perform various acts in the attainment of said purpose, their individual acts are treated as a single act. The felonious agreement produces a sole and solidary liability.
• when various acts are executed for the attainment of a single purpose w/c constitutes an offense, such acts must be considered only as one offense.
Example: Juan falsified 100 warehouse receipts from April to June which enabled him to swindle the bank of 100 million. There’s only one complex crime of estafa through multiple falsification of documents.
• There is no complex crime of arson w/ homicide
• Art 48 is applicable to crimes through negligence
Example: Juan lit a cigarette as he poured gas in the tank of his car in his garage.
The gas caught fire and the house burned. His sister died and the maid suffered serious physical injuries. The crimes of arson, homicide, serious physical injuries and damage to property constitute a complex crime. There is only one penalty but there are 3 civil liabilities.
Article 48 also applies in cases when out of a single act of negligence or imprudence, two or more grave or less grave felonies resulted, although only the first part thereof (compound crime).
The second part of Article 48 does not apply, referring to the complex crime proper because this applies or refers only to a deliberate commission of one offense to commit another offense.
• No complex crime when one of the offenses is penalized by a special law
Article 48 is not applicable when the crimes committed are made punishable by different laws.
Mala prohibita and mala in se cannot be grouped together to form a complex crime under Article 48
• Example of complex crime proper (at least 2 crimes must be committed):
Kidnapping the victim to murder him in a secluded place – ransom wasn’t paid so victim was killed. Kidnapping was a necessary means to commit murder. But where the victim was taken from his home for the sole purpose of killing him and not for detaining him illegally or for the purpose of ransom, the crime is simple murder.
• “Necessary means” does not mean “indispensable means”. Indispensable would mean it is an element of the crime. The crime can be committed by another mean.
The means actually employed (another crime) was merely to facilitate and insure the consummation of the crime.
“Necessary” should not be understood as indispensable, otherwise, it shall be considered absorbed and not giving rise to a complex crime.
• When in the definition of a felony, one offense is a means to commit the other, there is no complex crime.
Ex. Murder committed by means of fire. Murder can be qualified by the circumstance of fire so no complex crime even if Art 321 and 324 punishes arson. It’s plain and simple murder.
There is no disagreement that when a crime is committed because it is necessary to commit another crime, it is a complex crime and Article 48 is made applicable. However, the crime committed is an element of the other crime, then it is not considered a separate crime but is absorbed by the other crime.
• Not complex crime when trespass to dwelling is a direct means to commit a grave offense. Like rape, there is no complex crime of trespass to dwelling with rape.
Trespass will be considered as aggravating (unlawful entry or breaking part of a dwelling)
• No complex crime when one offense is committed to conceal another
Example: Juan set the school on fire after committing homicide. 2 crimes.
• When the offender had in his possession the funds w/c he misappropriated, the falsification of a public or official document involving said funds is a separate offense.
But when the offender had to falsify a public or official document to obtain possession of the funds w/c he misappropriated, the falsification is a necessary means to commit the malversation.
• There is no complex crime of rebellion with murder, arson, robbery or other common crimes. They are mere ingredients of the crime of rebellion – absorbed already.
When the crime of murder, arson and robbery are committed in the furtherance of the crime of rebellion, it is not a complex crime of rebellion with murder, arson and robbery. The crime committed is simple rebellion.
The crimes of murder, arson and robbery are treated as elements of rebellion. Note however, that in order that said crimes may be absorbed, it is necessary that the same were done in furtherance of the crime of rebellion.
(Pp vs. Geronimo)
• When 2 crimes produced by a single act are respectively within the exclusive jurisdiction of 2 courts of different jurisdiction, the court of higher jurisdiction shall try the complex crime.
Example: Although the forcible abduction which was supposedly commenced in Manila was not proven, and although the rape which was proven was actually committed in Cavite, still the RTC of Manila had jurisdiction to convict the accused of rape. The complex crime of forcible abduction with rape was charged in the complaint on the basis of which the case was tried.
In criminal procedure, it is prohibited to charge more than one offense in an information, except when the crimes in one information constitute a complex crime or a special complex crime.
So whenever the Supreme Court concludes that the criminal should be punished only once, because they acted in conspiracy or under the same criminal impulse, it is necessary to embody these crimes under one single information. It is necessary to consider them as complex crimes even if the essence of the crime does not fit the definition of Art 48, because there is no other provision in the RPC.
• Art. 48 is intended to favor the culprit.
• The penalty for complex crime is the penalty for the most serious crime, the same to be applied in its maximum period. If the different crimes resulting from one single act are punished with the same penalty, the penalty for any one of them shall be imposed, the same to be applied in the maximum period. The same rule shall be observed when an offense is a necessary means to commit the other.
If by complexing the crime, the penalty would turn out to be higher, do not complex anymore.
Example: Murder and theft (killed with treachery, then stole the right).
Penalty: If complex – Reclusion temporal maximum to death.
If treated individually – Reclusion temporal to Reclusion Perpetua.
Complex crime is not just a matter of penalty, but of substance under the Revised Penal Code.
• A complex crime of the second form may be committed by two persons.
• But when one of the offenses, as a means to commit the other, was committed by one of the accused by reckless imprudence, the accused who committed the crime by reckless imprudence is liable for his acts only.
Example: Juan cooperated in the commission of the complex offense of estafa through falsification by reckless imprudence by acts without which it could not have been accomplished, and this being a fact, there would be no reason to exculpate him from liability. Even assuming he had no intention to defraud Tomas if his
co-defendants succeeded in attaining the purpose sought by the culprits, Juan’s participation together w/ the participation of his co-defendants in the commission of the offense completed all the elements necessary for the perpetration of the complex crime of estafa through falsification of documents.
• When two felonies constituting a complex crime are punishable by imprisonment and fine, respectively, only the penalty of imprisonment shall be imposed.
• When a single act constitutes two grave or less grave or one grave and another less grave, and the penalty for one is imprisonment while that for the other is fine, the severity of the penalty for the more serious crime should not be judged by the classification of each of the penalties involved, but by the nature of the penalties.
Example: Even if the fine for damage to property through reckless imprudence is P40,000, an afflictive penalty, and the penalty for the physical injuries resulting from the same act is only 4 mos of arresto mayor, a correccional penalty may be imposed.
• In the order of severity of the penalties, arresto mayor and arresto menor are considered more severe than destierro and arresto menor is higher in degree than destierro.
• Fine is not included in the list of penalties in the order of severity and it is the last in the order.
• Art 48 applies only to cases where the Code doesn’t provide a specific penalty for a complex crime.
• Art 48 doesn’t apply when the law provides one single penalty for single complex crimes like the ff: (composite crimes)
a) robbery w/ homicide b) robbery w/ rape
c) kidnapping w/ serious physical injuries d) rape w/ homicide
A composite crime is one in which substance is made up of more than one crime, but which in the eyes of the law is only a single indivisible offense. This is also known as special complex crime.
• When a complex crime is charged and one offense is not proven, the accused can be convicted of the other.
• Plurality of crimes – consists in the successive execution by the same individual of different criminal acts upon any of w/c no conviction has yet been declared.
• Kinds of plurality of crimes:
a) formal or ideal – only one criminal liability
b) real or material – there are different crimes in law as well as in the conscience of the offender, in such cases, the offender shall be punished for each and every offense that he committed.
Example: Juan stabbed Pedro, then Juan stabbed Tomas too. There are 2 committed as 2 acts were performed.
When the plurality of crimes is covered by a specific provision of law and declares that such aggrupation is but a single crime and provides a specific penalty for its commission, Art. 48 should not be made to apply. When there is no law that covers the combination of the crimes committed, then Art. 48 will apply.
PLURALITY OF CRIMES RECIDIVISM
No conviction of the crimes committed There must be conviction by final judgment of the first prior offense
• Formal/ideal plural crimes are divided into 3 groups: (a person committing multiple crimes is punished w/ one penalty in the ff cases)
a) when the offender commits any of the complex crimes defined in art 48 b) when the law specifically fixes a single penalty for 2 or more offenses committed: robbery w/ homicide, kidnapping w/ serious physical injuires
c) when the offender commits continued crimes
• Continued crimes – refers to a single crime consisting of a series of acts but all arising from one criminal resolution. Although there is a series of acts, there is only one crime committed, so only one penalty shall be imposed.
A “continued crime” is one where the offender performs a series of acts violating one and the same penal provision committed at the same place and about the same time for the same criminal purpose, regardless of a series of acts done, it is regarded in law as one.
When the actor, there being unity of purpose and of right violated, commits diverse acts, each of which, although of a delictual character, merely constitutes a partial delict, such occurrence of delictual acts is called
“delicto continuado”.” (Gamboa vs. Court of Appeals, 68 SCRA 314)
• Examples of continued crimes:
a) a collector of a commercial firm misappropriates for his personal use several amounts collected by him from different persons. There is only one crime because the different and successive appropriations are but the different moments during which one criminal resolution arises.
b) Juan stole 2 books belonging to 2 different persons. He commits only one crime because there is unity of thought in the criminal purpose of the offender.
• A continued crime is not a complex crime as offender does not perform a single act but a series of acts. Therefore:
a) penalty not to be imposed in the maximum
b) no actual provision punishing a continued crime – it’s a principle applied in connection w/ 2 or more crimes committed w/ a single intention.
• Continued crime is different from a transitory crime. Transitory crime is “moving crime”.
Example: kidnapping someone for ransom and moving him to another venue. The offenders can be prosecuted and tried in either of the 2 areas.
REAL/MATERIAL PLURALITY CONTINUED CRIME
There is a series of acts performed by the offender
Same Each act performed constitutes a separate
crime because each act is generated by a criminal impulse
Different acts constitute only one crime because all of the acts performed arise from one criminal resolution.
In the theft cases, the trend is to follow the single larceny doctrine, that is taking of several things, whether belonging to the same or different owners, at the same time and place, constitutes one larceny only.
Defamation cases
A libelous publication affecting more than one person constitutes as many crimes as there are offended parties. The crime is not complex even though there was only one act of publication.
Where the defamatory statement was uttered only once on a single occasion against a group of persons not mentioned individually, the act constitutes only one offense.