SOMEONE asked me what things I consider before advising a client to file an action in court.
Well, there are a lot to consider. That is why I need to know the facts surrounding the case to better serve justice to my client as well as to the courts.
These past few weeks, I was dealing with five clients who wanted to file criminal charges. However, two of them will not be able to file an action. Why so?
I let my clients understand that crimes are not immediately penalized. The reason is that crimes have circumstances that prevent the offended party from filing criminal charges. One of these circumstances is the prescription period of a crime. The law prescribes a specific time within which an offender may be prosecuted for the crimes committed.
In the cases of my clients, they lost their right to prosecute because they did not take legal actions within the prescribed period.
Let me share to you the different prescribed periods for felonies and offenses committed.
The Revised Penal Code provides for the prescription of crimes. Article 90 provides that crimes punishable by death, reclusion perpetua or reclusion temporal shall prescribe in 20 years.
Crimes punishable by other afflictive penalties shall prescribe in 15 years.
Those punishable by a correctional penalty shall prescribe in 10 years; with the exception of those punishable by arresto mayor, which shall prescribe in five years.
Additionally, the crime of libel or other similar offenses shall prescribe in one year. The crime of oral defamation and slander by deed shall prescribe in six months. Light offenses prescribe in two months.
Nevertheless, when the penalty fixed by law is a compound one, the highest penalty shall be made the basis of the application of the rules contained in the article.
Act No. 3326 also known as “An Act to Establish Periods of Prescription for Violations Penalized by Special Acts and Municipal Ordinances and to Provide When Prescription Shall Begin to Run” provides for additional prescriptions of offenses.
It provides that violations penalized by special acts shall prescribe in accordance with the following rules:
(a) after a year for offenses punished only by a fine or by imprisonment for not more than one month, or both;
(b) after four years for those punished by imprisonment for more than one month, but less than two years;
(c) after eight years for those punished by imprisonment for two years or more, but less than six years; and
(d) after 12 years for any other offense punished by imprisonment for six years or more, except the crime of treason, which shall prescribe after twenty years.
Violations penalized by municipal ordinances shall prescribe after two months.
In computing the prescribed period, prescription shall begin to run from the day of the commission of the violation of the law, and if the same be not known at the time, from the discovery thereof and the institution of judicial proceeding for its investigation and punishment.
It is very important to note that when a person wants to file charges against another, the former must immediately seek the help of a lawyer. In this way, his rights and interests will be protected.
He or she should bear in mind that prescription is interrupted when proceedings are instituted against the guilty person, and shall begin to run again if the proceedings are dismissed for reasons not constituting jeopardy.
May the aggrieved find true justice and not prescribed actions.
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(Atty. Ayin Dream D. Aplasca practices her profession in Iloilo City. She may be reached thru ayindream.aplasca@gmail.com/PN)
