A Murder Case Allegedly Happened in 1990: Can It Still Be Filed Today?

A client sought a legal advice with regards to his son.  Allegedly, his son was killed sometime in the 1990.  Granting without accepting that the facts of the case qualify it into a crime of murder, can it still be filed today?

Before answering the question on whether or not the crime could still be filed today, the provision of the on prescription of crimes may enlighten the issue.

"Prescription of crimes. - Crimes punishable by death, reclusion perpetua or reclusion temporal shall prescribe in twenty years.

Crimes punishable by other afflictive penalties shall prescribe in fifteen years.

Those punishable by correctional penalty shall prescribe in ten years; with the exception of those punishable by arresto mayor, which shall prescribe in five years.

The crimes of libel or other similar offenses shall prescribe in one year.

The offenses of oral defamation and slander by deed shall prescribe in six months.

Light offenses prescribe in two months.

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 first, second, and third paragraphs of this article (As amended by R.A. No. 4661)

Based on the provision above, a case of murder, being penalized with death, shall have a prescriptive period of 20 years.  Reckoning from the date of crime in 1990, it is already beyond the prescriptive period.  If the crime already prescribes, the crime can no longer be filed in court.

However, when is the running of prescriptive period commences?

In a People versus Duque, the Supreme Court said that 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 until institution of judicial proceedings for its investigation and punishment.

"From the day of the commission of the violation of the law"

Generally, the prescriptive period shall start from the date of the commission of the violation of the law or from the commission of the crime.  In the instant case, considering that the crime allegedly happened in 1990, so the 20-year prescriptive period shall commence from that year.  Hence, the crime shall be filed anytime from 1990 to 2010.  If not filed within these years, it has already prescribed.

"If the same be not known at the time, from the discovery thereof"

In this situation, the reckoning point shall be at the time of the discovery of the crime or the violation of the law.  Whether the alleged crime took place in 1990 but the discovery thereof is in 2014, the start of the running of the prescriptive period shall be in 2014 and not in 1990.

Thus, in the instant case, if it is just newly discovered that her son was killed, the crime can still be perfectly instituted in the proper forum.

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