Here’s a tightly organized, practice-oriented explainer on Crimes Against Persons under Philippine law (principally the Revised Penal Code or “RPC,” Book II, Title Eight, as amended by later statutes like R.A. 8353, R.A. 9346, and R.A. 11648). It’s written for lawyers, law students, compliance officers, and investigators who need the elements, common pitfalls, defenses, and penalty maps in one place.

Core Architecture

Crimes against persons primarily protect life, bodily integrity, freedom from sexual violence, and bodily autonomy. The canonical list under the RPC (with typical article numbers) includes:

Parricide (Art. 246)
Murder (Art. 248)
Homicide (Art. 249)
Death or injuries caused in a tumultuous affray (Arts. 251–252)
Assistance to suicide (Art. 253)
Illegal discharge of firearms (Art. 254)
Infanticide (Art. 255)
Abortion offenses (Arts. 256–261)
Mutilation (Art. 262)
Serious, less serious, and slight physical injuries (Arts. 263, 265, 266)
Rape (R.A. 8353 reclassified rape under Title Eight; RPC Arts. 266-A to 266-D, as amended by R.A. 11648 on age of consent)

Penalties and age thresholds have been affected by later laws—notably R.A. 9346 (no death penalty; maximum is reclusion perpetua) and R.A. 11648 (sexual consent now below 16 = statutory rape, subject to a limited close-in-age exemption).

Special laws (e.g., R.A. 7610 on child abuse, R.A. 9262 on VAWC, Anti-Trafficking, Anti-Hazing, Anti-Rape in Custody, Anti-Bullying in schools) may overlap or supersede in charging decisions when they provide lex specialis treatment, higher penalties, or modified elements.

Crimes Against Life

1) Parricide (Art. 246)

Elements: (a) A person is killed; (b) Offender is the spouse, ascendant, or descendant of the victim (legitimate or illegitimate); (c) Intent to kill. Notes: Relationship is a qualifying circumstance—it changes the nature of the offense. Proof of filiation or marriage is critical (civil registry, testimony, admissions).

2) Murder (Art. 248)

Elements: (a) A person is killed; (b) The killing is attended by any qualifying circumstance, e.g.:

Treachery (alevosia)
Evident premeditation
Price/reward/promise
By means of fire, explosion, poison, etc.
Cruelty/ignominy
In the course of rape, robbery, or arson (or other circumstances the article enumerates) Absence of a proven qualifier typically downgrades to homicide.

3) Homicide (Art. 249)

Elements: (a) A person is killed; (b) Without the qualifying circumstances of murder or the relationship element of parricide; (c) Intent to kill (may be inferred from weapon used, location of wounds, conduct).

4) Death in a tumultuous affray (Art. 251) & Serious injuries in an affray (Art. 252)

Liability attaches to those who used violence and those identified as having inflicted serious injuries. When the actual killer is unknown, the law apportions liability differently—key in riot or gang contexts.

5) Assistance to suicide (Art. 253)

Penalizes one who assists or induces another to commit suicide; higher penalty if the offender actually kills the victim on the latter’s request.

6) Illegal discharge of firearms (Art. 254)

Shooting at a person without intent to kill. If intent to kill is proven, charge attempted homicide/murder (or consummated, if death ensues).

7) Infanticide (Art. 255)

Killing of a child less than three (3) days old. Penalty calibration differs from parricide/homicide; mitigating considerations historically applied to the mother (e.g., concealment of dishonor) are statutory, not generic mitigation.

Crimes Affecting Bodily Integrity

8) Abortion offenses (Arts. 256–261)

Intentional abortion (by violence, drugs, or other means).
Unintentional abortion (result not intended but caused by violence).
Abortion by the woman herself or by her parents.
Abortion by a physician or midwife; dispensing abortives.

Philippine criminal law does not create a general “therapeutic abortion” exception in these provisions. In practice, physicians rely on justifying circumstances (e.g., state of necessity under Art. 11) when a procedure is indispensable to save the mother’s life; careful documentation and ethics protocols are essential.

9) Mutilation (Art. 262)

Covers (1) castration and (2) mutilation of any other principal organ causing incapacity for reproduction or serious deformity. Intent and permanency matter.

10) Serious Physical Injuries (Art. 263)

Graduated by gravity of harm:

Insanity, imbecility, impotency, or blindness = highest bracket.
Loss of speech, hearing, smell; loss of an eye/hand/foot; loss of use; incapacity for habitual work >90 days.
Lesser brackets track medical attendance and days of incapacity. Proof tips: Medical certificates should specify nature of injury, treatment, days of incapacity; courts scrutinize conclusory “X days” notes without medical basis.

11) Less Serious (Art. 265) & Slight Physical Injuries (Art. 266)

Less serious: incapacity/medical attendance of 10–30 days.
Slight: 1–9 days, or ill-treatment without medical attendance.

If the attack was attended by disgrace or discrimination (e.g., against a woman or child) or committed with weapons or publicly, check for aggravating or qualifying effects under the general rules or overlapping special laws.

Rape and Sexual Assault (Arts. 266-A to 266-D; R.A. 8353; amended by R.A. 11648)

Forms

Rape by sexual intercourse (vaginal) through:
- Force, threat, or intimidation;
- Deprivation of reason or unconsciousness;
- Offender takes advantage of victim’s mental disability;
- Statutory rape: victim is below 16 (per R.A. 11648), regardless of consent, subject to a close-in-age exemption (consensual, non-exploitative, age gap ≤3 years, and victim is at least 13).
Sexual assault: insertion of penis into mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument/object into genital/anal orifice, under the same coercion/incapacity/statutory rules.

Qualified Rape (higher penalty)

Qualifiers include: victim under 18 and offender is parent, ascendant, step-parent, guardian, or common-law spouse of the parent; rape by two or more persons; with deadly weapon; resulting in homicide (the special complex crime often referred to as “rape with homicide”).

Marital rape is expressly recognized. Sexual assault is distinct but also serious; charging may cumulate with other offenses (acts of lasciviousness, child abuse, trafficking) depending on facts.

Consent, incapacity, and evidence

The law protects victims who are unconscious, drugged, or whose will is overborne; silence or lack of resistance is not consent.
For children, focus on age and power imbalance; medical proof helps but is not indispensable if testimonial evidence is credible.
Rape shield principles limit proof of past sexual behavior to avoid victim-blaming.

Stages of Execution & Related Doctrines

Attempted/Frustrated/Consummated stages apply to intentional felonies (e.g., homicide/murder, rape). The dividing lines hinge on whether the offender performed all acts of execution and whether death/penetration occurred.
Aberratio ictus, error in personae, and praeter intentionem can affect liability classification and penalties.
Complex crimes: (a) Article 48 (single act, two or more grave/felonies; or necessary means); (b) Special complex crimes like robbery with violence against or intimidation of persons or rape with homicide, which are treated as single, indivisible offenses with specific penalties.

Defenses, Exemptions, and Justifications

Self-defense, defense of relatives/strangers (Art. 11): requires unlawful aggression, reasonable necessity of the means, lack of sufficient provocation.
State of necessity, performance of duty, obedience to lawful orders, accident, insanity/mental illness (exempting), minority (R.A. 9344 as amended by R.A. 10630) are critical in practice.
In rape, defenses often revolve around consent, alibi/implausibility, or attacking credibility; however, jurisprudence warns against stock myths (e.g., prompt reporting as a sine qua non).

Penalties (high-level map)

Parricide/Murder: reclusion perpetua (death penalty barred by R.A. 9346).
Homicide: generally reclusion temporal.
Rape: reclusion perpetua for qualified rape and severe forms; reclusion temporal to perpetua ranges for others; sexual assault has lower ranges but can be qualified upward.
Serious PI: ranges from prisión correccional up to reclusión temporal depending on gravity; Less serious: arresto mayor; Slight: arresto menor or fine.
Abortion/mutilation/assistance to suicide/illegal discharge: penalty depends on modality and result.

Aggravating (e.g., treachery, abuse of superior strength, dwelling, nighttime, by motor vehicle) and mitigating (e.g., passion/obfuscation, voluntary surrender, plea of guilty) circumstances adjust the period of the imposable penalty within the proper range.

Civil Liability & Damages

Conviction ordinarily carries civil liability ex delicto:

Civil indemnity (fixed amounts for death or rape),
Moral damages, exemplary damages, temperate/actual damages, and loss of earning capacity (in death cases). Amounts are guided by Supreme Court templates/case law and may be automatically awarded upon conviction without need of specific proof for certain heads (e.g., civil indemnity and moral damages in rape and death cases), while actual damages require receipts; temperate may substitute for scant proof.

Procedural & Evidentiary Highlights

Venue: typically where the crime was committed; for certain sexual offenses against children, special venue rules may apply.
Prescription (Arts. 90–91): generally 20 years for offenses punishable by reclusión temporal or perpetua; shorter periods for lesser felonies. Filing of the complaint or information interrupts prescription.
Witness protection: consider WPP for high-risk homicide/murder and sexual violence cases.
Forensics:
- Homicide/murder: autopsy, trajectory, GSR, wound morphology, retrieval of the weapon; chain of custody for ballistic and biological evidence.
- Rape/sexual assault: timely medico-legal examination, clothing preservation, pregnancy/STI testing; testimony can suffice even without injuries.
Notarized affidavits are not substitutes for in-court testimony; prepare witnesses for cross-examination and variance rules (e.g., charged with murder but only treachery unproven → conviction for homicide).

Overlaps with Special Laws (Charging Strategy)

R.A. 9262 (VAWC): physical injuries, threats, intimidation, and sexual violence by intimate partners may be charged under 9262 (often concurrent with RPC offenses); 9262 brings protective orders and distinct penalties.
R.A. 7610: acts of lasciviousness, prostitution, child sexual abuse/exploitation—often yields higher penalties than the RPC for acts involving children.
R.A. 9995 (Anti-Photo/Video Voyeurism), R.A. 9775 (Child Pornography), R.A. 9208 as amended by R.A. 10364 (Anti-Trafficking), R.A. 8049 as amended (Anti-Hazing), R.A. 11313 (Safe Spaces)—consider these where facts fit; they may displace or augment RPC counts.

Practical Checklists

For Investigators/Prosecutors

Life crimes: lock in cause of death, intent, and qualifiers (treachery, evident premeditation). Don’t overcharge murder if qualifiers are weak.
Affray: identify who used violence and segregate unknown actual assailants under Arts. 251–252.
Physical injuries: secure medical detail (nature, treatment, incapacity days).
Rape: confirm age, relationship qualifiers, coercive circumstances, and preserve forensic and digital evidence (messages, location data).
Abortion/mutilation: document intent, method, and medical permanency.
Always assess special laws for higher penalties or victim protection.

For Defense

Test qualifying circumstances (e.g., treachery requires sudden and unexpected attack minimizing risk to the offender).
In injuries, challenge incapacity days and medical basis; push for lower bracket if proof is equivocal.
Explore justifying/exempting grounds (self-defense, accident, insanity, minority) and mitigation (voluntary surrender, plea).
Question chain of custody for forensics; identify coaching/ill-will in testimonial attacks in sex cases while respecting shield principles.

Sentencing Notes & Collateral Issues

Indeterminate Sentence Law applies to divisible penalties (e.g., homicide, many PI cases).
Privileged mitigating (e.g., minority) lowers penalty by one or more degrees.
Probation is barred for those sentenced to more than 6 years (with enumerated exceptions); check post-conviction relief pathways.
Civil compromise does not extinguish criminal liability for crimes against persons (except where the law allows and only as to civil aspects for certain offenses).

Bottom Line

Start with what legal interest was harmed (life, bodily integrity, sexual autonomy).
Map the specific article and verify qualifiers/relationships that change the offense.
Cross-check special laws (they may govern or enhance).
Nail forensic and testimonial foundations (cause of death, penetration, incapacity days, age).
Calibrate penalties with aggravating/mitigating factors and consider civil damages.

This framework should let you analyze almost any crimes-against-persons scenario in Philippine practice—from charge selection through proof and sentencing—without getting lost in the weeds.