- Statute
- Revised Penal Code
- Article
- Art. 65
- Topic
- Rule in cases in which the penalty is not composed of three periods
- Status
- In force
- Year
- 1930
- Cited by
- Multiple Supreme Court decisions
The provision
ARTICLE 65. Rule in cases in which the penalty is not composed of three periods. - In cases in which the penalty prescribed by law is not composed of three periods, the courts shall apply the rules contained in the foregoing articles, dividing into three equal portions of time included in the penalty prescribed, and forming one period of each of the three portions.
Intellegal Wiki · In plain terms
When the penalty the law prescribes is not already divided into three periods, the court applies the same graduation rules by splitting the time covered by that penalty into three equal portions and treating each portion as one period (minimum, medium, and maximum).
An editorially maintained plain-language explanation of this provision — not legal advice.
Key points
Article 65 supplies the rule for graduating penalties that are not composed of three periods. The court divides the time included in the prescribed penalty into three equal portions, forming a minimum, medium, and maximum period.
This lets the period-based rules on mitigating and aggravating circumstances apply to penalties that the law does not already express in three periods. The provision is a mechanical companion to Articles 61–64 on the application of penalties.
The article supplies the arithmetic that makes the period-based rules workable. After dividing the prescribed penalty into three equal portions to form the minimum, medium, and maximum periods, the court selects the proper period using the rules on mitigating and aggravating circumstances in Articles 62 to 64, and then fixes a determinate sentence within that period. It is a companion to the other rules on the application of penalties and is frequently invoked together with the Indeterminate Sentence Law in fixing the term actually imposed.
Cases applying this article
- People v. Rico G.R. No. 232075
- Biñas v. People G.R. No. 226207
- Candao v. People G.R. No. 186659