- Statute
- Revised Penal Code
- Article
- Art. 63
- Topic
- Statutory provision
- Status
- In force
- Year
- 1930
- Cited by
- Multiple Supreme Court decisions
The provision
Art. 63. Rules for the application of indivisible penalties. — In all cases in which the law prescribes a single indivisible penalty, it shall be applied by the courts regardless of any mitigating or aggravating circumstances that may have attended the commission of the deed.
In all cases in which the law prescribes a penalty composed of two indivisible penalties, the following rules shall be observed in the application thereof:
1. When in the commission of the deed there is present only one aggravating circumstance, the greater penalty shall be applied.
2. When there are neither mitigating nor aggravating circumstances in the commission of the deed, the lesser penalty shall be applied.
3. When the commission of the act is attended by some mitigating circumstances and there is no aggravating circumstance, the lesser penalty shall be applied.
4. When both mitigating and aggravating circumstances attended the commission of the act, the court shall reasonably allow them to offset one another in consideration of their number and importance, for the purpose of applying the penalty in accordance with the preceding rules, according to the result of such compensation.
Intellegal Wiki · In plain terms
Directs how courts apply penalties that cannot be split into degrees. Where the law fixes a single indivisible penalty, the court must impose it no matter what mitigating or aggravating circumstances exist; where the law fixes two indivisible penalties, the presence, absence, or offsetting of such circumstances decides whether the greater or the lesser penalty is used.
An editorially maintained plain-language explanation of this provision — not legal advice.
Cases applying this article
- People v. Pagal G.R. No. L-32040
- People v. Santos G.R. No. 252025
- People v. Ugang G.R. No. 144036
- People v. Pagalasan G.R. No. 131926