Fire Arson prefinal

Question 1

Any person who burns or sets fire to the property of another shall be punished by Prision Mayor.
- The same penalty shall be imposed when a person sets fire to his own property under circumstances which expose to danger the life or property of another.

Answer 1

Arson (pd 1613)

Question 2

The penalty of Reclusion Temporal in its maximum period to Reclusion Perpetua shall be imposed if the property burned is any of the following:
1. Any ammunition factory and other establishment where explosives, inflammable or combustible materials are stored.
2. Any archive, museum, whether public or private, or any edifice devoted to culture, education or social services

3. Any church or place of worship or other building where people usually assemble.
4. Any train, airplane or any aircraft, vessel or watercraft, or conveyance for transportation of persons or property
5. Any building where evidence is kept for use in any legislative, judicial, administrative or other official proceedings.
6. Any hospital, hotel, dormitory, lodging house, housing tenement, shopping center, public or private market, theater or movie house or any similar place or building.
7. Any building, whether used as a dwelling or not, situated in a populated or congested area.

Answer 2

Destructive Arson (RPC)

Question 3

Section 10. Article 320 of the same Code is hereby amended

Answer 3

RA 7659 (December 13, 1993)

Question 4

RA 7659

Art. 320. Destructive Arson. - The penalty of reclusion perpetua to death shall be imposed upon any person who shall burn:

Answer 4

1. One (1) or more buildings or edifices, consequent to one single act of burning, or as a result of simultaneous burnings, committed on several or different occasions.
2. Any building of public or private ownership, devoted to the public in general or where people usually gather or congregate for a definite purpose such as, but not limited to, official governmental function or business, private transaction, commerce, trade, workshop, meetings and conferences, or merely incidental to a definite purpose such as but not limited to hotels, motels, transient dwellings, public conveyances or stops or terminals, regardless of whether the offender had knowledge that there are persons in said building or edifice at the time it is set on fire and regardless also of whether the building is actually inhabited or not.
   RA 7659 (December 13, 1993)
3. Any train or locomotive, ship or vessel, airship or airplane, devoted to transportation or conveyance, or for public use, entertainment or leisure.
4. Any building, factory, warehouse installation and any appurtenances thereto, which are devoted to the service of public utilities.
5. Any building the burning of which is for the purpose of concealing or destroying evidence of another violation of law, or for the purpose of concealing bankruptcy or defrauding creditors or to collect from insurance.

Question 5

Irrespective of the application of the above enumerated qualifying circumstances, the penalty of reclusion perpetua to death shall likewise be imposed when the arson is perpetrated or committed by two (2) or more persons or by a group of persons, regardless of whether their purpose is merely to burn or destroy the building or the burning merely constitutes an overt act in the commission or another violation of law.

Answer 5

True

Question 6

The penalty of reclusion perpetua to death shall also be imposed upon any person who shall burn:
1. Any arsenal, shipyard, storehouse or military powder or fireworks factory, ordnance, storehouse, archives or general museum of the Government.
2. In an inhabited place, any storehouse or factory of inflammable or explosive materials.
If as a consequence of the commission of any of the acts penalized under this Article, death results, the mandatory penalty of death shall be imposed.”

Answer 6

RA 7659 (December 13, 1993)

Question 7

Other Cases of Arson
The penalty of Reclusion Temporal to Reclusion Perpetua shall be imposed if the property burned is any of the following:

Answer 7

1. Any building used as offices of the government or any of its agencies;
2. Any inhabited house or dwelling;
3. Any industrial establishment, shipyard, oil well or mine shaft, platform or tunnel;
4. Any plantation, farm, pastureland, growing crop, grain field, orchard, bamboo grove or forest;
5. Any rice mill, sugar mill, cane mill or mill central; and
6. Any railway or bus station, airport, wharf or warehouse.

Question 8

Robbery with Arson
Order…
1. Robbery with Homicide
2. Robbery with Rape
3. Robbery with Mutilation
4. Robbery with Arson (RA 7659)
5. Robbery with Serious Physical Injuries

Question 8

Special Aggravating Circumstances in Arson
The penalty in any case of arson shall be imposed in its maximum period;

Answer 8

1. If committed with intent to gain;
2. If committed for the benefit of another;
3. If the offender is motivated by spite or hatred towards the owner or occupant of the property burned;
4. If committed by a syndicate.
   The offense is committed by a syndicate if its is planned or carried out by a group of three (3) or more persons.

Question 9

G.R. No. 170470, September 26, 2006, 503 SCRA 294, 315-318
The Supreme Court held that there is no complex crime of arson with
homicide because the crime of arson absorbs the resultant death or is a separate crime altogether, to wit:
Accordingly, in cases where both burning and death occur, in order to determine what crime/crimes was/were perpetrated - whether arson, murder or arson and homicide/murder, it is de rigueur to ascertain the main objective of the malefactor:
(a) if the main objective is the burning of the building or edifice, but death results by reason or on the occasion of arson, the crime is simply arson, and the resulting homicide is absorbed;
(b) if, on the other hand, the main objective is to kill a particular person who may be in a building or edifice, when fire is resorted to as the means to accomplish such goal the crime committed is murder only; lastly,
(c) if the objective is, likewise, to kill a particular person, and in fact the offender has already done so, but fire is resorted to as a means to cover up the killing, then there are two separate and distinct crimes committed - homicide/murder and arson.

Answer 9

• People v. Mangan

Question 10

US v. Valdez G.R. No. L-14128 December 10, 1918
The offender had tried to burn the premises by gathering jute sacks laying these inside the room. He lighted these, and as soon as the jute sacks began to burn, he ran away. The occupants of the room put out the fire. The court held that what was committed was frustrated arson.

Answer 10

Frustrated arson

Question 11

People vs Garcia
The Supreme Court followed the analysis that one cannot say that the offender in the crime of arson has already performed all the acts of execution which would produce the arson as a consequence, unless and until a part of the premises had begun to burn.

Answer 11

Frustrated arson

Question 12

1. If the fire started simultaneously in more than one part of the building or establishment.
2. If substantial amount of flammable substances or materials are stored within the building note necessary in the business of the offender nor for household us.
3. If gasoline, kerosene, petroleum or other flammable or combustible substances or materials soaked therewith or containers thereof, or any mechanical, electrical, chemical, or electronic contrivance designed to start a fire, or ashes or traces of any of the foregoing are found in the ruins or premises of the burned building or property.
4. If the building or property is insured for substantially more than its actual value at the time of the issuance of the policy.
5. If during the lifetime of the corresponding fire insurance policy more than two fires have occurred in the same or other premises owned or under the control of the offender and/or insured.
6. If shortly before the fire, a substantial portion of the effects insured and stored in a building or property had been withdrawn from the premises except in the ordinary course of business.
7. If a demand for money or other valuable consideration was made before the fire in exchange for the desistance of the offender or for the safety of the person or property of the victim.

Answer 12

Prima Facie evidence of Arson

Question 13

shall be punished by Prision Mayor in its minimum period.

Answer 13

Conspiracy to commit Arson

Question 14

The building which is the object of arson including the land on which it is situated shall be confiscated and escheated to the State, unless the owner thereof can prove that he has no participation in nor knowledge of such arson despite the exercise of due diligence on his part.

Answer 14

• Confiscation of Object of Arson

Question 15

Fire Code of the Philippines

Answer 15

Republic Act No. 9514