Voluntary surrender may result in reduction of imposable penalty
Dear Pablo,
The possible implication of your brother’s voluntary surrender to a person in authority is that it may be considered as a mitigating circumstance of the crime charged, and as a consequence, it will lower the imposable penalty for the Article 13 of the Revised Penal
- untary surrender to a person in authority or his agents is one of the mitigating circumstances that reduces the penalty for the crime charged, to wit: - - gating circumstances: xxx offender had vol-
untarily surrendered himself to a person in authority or his
, or that he had voluntarily confessed his guilt before the court prior to the presentation of the evidence for the prosecution; Xxx” (Emphasis supplied) In order to consider the voluntary surrender as a mitigating circumstance, however, the Supreme Court in the case of Rosa- penned by former Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura, explained that the following requisites should be present: 1) the offender has not been actually arrested; 2) the offender surrendered himself to a person in authority or the latter’s agent; 3) the surrender was voluntary; and 4) there is no pending warrant of noted that the circumstances of the surrender must show that it was made spontaneously and in a manner clearly indicating the intent of the accused to surrender unconditionally, either because he acknowledges his guilt or he wishes to save the authorities the trouble and expense that will necessarily be incurred in search
Applying the foregoing to your case and considering that there is no warrant of arrest issued, nor information filed before the competent court where the crime has been committed, your brother’s voluntary surrender may be appreciated as a mitigating circumstance that may result in the reduction of the imposable penalty provided
that this opinion is solely based on the facts you have narrated The opinion may vary when the We hope that we were able to en Editor’snote:DearPAOisadaily columnofthePublicAttorney’sOf-