Article 20. Accessories who are exempt from criminal liability.
The penalties prescribed for accessories shall not
be imposed upon those who are such with respect to their spouses, ascendants,
descendants, legitimate, natural, and adopted brothers and sisters, or
relatives by affinity within the same degrees, with the single exemption of
accessories falling within the provisions of paragraph 1 of the next preceding
article.
Explanations:
An accessory is exempt from criminal liability when the principal is
his:
- Spouse;
- Ascendant;
- Descendant;
- Legitimate, natural or adopted brother, sister or relative by affinity within the same degree.
Exemption: Nephew or niece
"With the single exemption of
accessories falling within the provisions of paragraph 1 of the next preceding
article" -
Even if the principal is his spouse, ascendant, descendant, relative
by affinity within the same degree, accessory is criminally liable if he has
performed any acts under Paragraph 1, Article 19:
- By profiting themselves or
- By assisting the offender to profit by the effects of the crime.
Reason: acts are prompted not by affection but by a detestable
greed.
Accessory under par 2 and 3 of Art. 19 are exempt
from criminal liability is they are related to the principals:
Article 19:
xxx
- By concealing or destroying the body of the crime or the effects or instruments thereof, in order to prevent its discovery;
- By harboring, concealing, or assisting in the escape of the principal of the crime, provided that the accessory acts with the abuse of his public functions or whenever the author of the crime is guilty with treason, parricide, murder, or an attempt to take the life of the Chief Executive, or is known to be habitually guilty of some other crime.
Reason: the accessory did not
profit or assist the offender to profit by the effects of the crime.
Questions:
- Suppose a husband conceals the property stolen by his wife in order to profit from it later, is he liable as accessory?
- Suppose A, who committed parricide by killing his wife, went to his adopter brother to hide in the latter's house and his adopted brother hid A because he gave his adopted brother P 1,000.00, is the adopted brother an accessory? Is he criminally liable?
- Suppose X is a public officer who, with evident abuse of his office, furnished the means of escape to his brother who had committed murder criminally liable as accessory?
Answers:
- Yes, it would seem that he may be held liable as accessory, because his said act is prompted not by affection but by a detestable greed. In that case, his purpose in concealing the stolen property is not to prevent the discovery of the crime.
- The adopted brother is an accessory, because knowing that A committed parricide, he harbored and concealed him. But he is not criminally liable, because he did not profit by the effects of the crime. The P1,000.00 received by him from A was not the effect of the crime of parricide.
- No. The public officer does not incur any criminal liability. Ties of blood or relationship constitutes a more powerful incentive than the call of duty. Furthermore, Article 20 does not grant the benefits of exemption only to accessories who profited or helped the offender profit by the effects of the crime. This is only the case where the accessory who is related to the offender incurs criminal liability.
