Daily Serving of Legal Matters

image grabbed from www.thehindu.com The words PRINCIPALS, ACCOMPLICES and ACCESSORIES of the crime/s may no longer be uncommon to most of us.  We may have heard and read these terms in the newspapers, television and nowadays in the internet. To differentiate the terms from each other, this post is trying to provide their definitions. Article 17 of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines provides who are considered as principals. Thus: "The following are considered principals: 1.  Those who take a direct part in the execution of the act; 2.  Those who directly force or induce others to commit it; 3.  Those who cooperate in the commission of the offense by another act without which it would not have been accomplished." Based on the aforementioned, there three types of principals of the crime.  Those are principal by direct participation, principal by inducement and principal by cooperation. Whether he may participate directly, induce or coopera...

Image Credit to www.flashcards.barmaterials.com via Google. I am sure that most of us are already familiar with the term ACCESSORIES TO THE CRIME. I am hoping also that aside from hearing this term very often, we already have a grasp of what it conveys and how could we evade from committing it. The Revised Penal Code or Act Number 3815, as amended, provides a definition of accessories to the crime.  Accordingly, accessories are those who, having knowledge of the commission of the crime, and without participated therein, either as principals or accomplices, take part subsequent to its commission in the manner provided by law. Accessories are not principals nor accomplices to the crime. Accessories take part subsequent to the commission of the crimes in this manners: 1. By profiting themselves or assisting the offender to profit by the effects of the crime; 2. By concealing or destroying the body of the crime, or the effects or instruments thereof, in order to prevent its discove...