i. Prescription of Crimes

Prescription of Crimes

Concept

Prescription of a crime is a mode of totally extinguishing criminal liability under the Revised Penal Code. It concerns the period within which proceedings for the offense may be initiated, subject to the rules on commencement, interruption, and resumption of that period. (Art. 89, Revised Penal Code)¹ (Art. 91, Revised Penal Code)²

Governing provisions

Article 89 lists prescription of the crime among the modes of total extinction of criminal liability. Article 90 fixes the prescriptive periods by reference to the penalty or the specified offense. Article 91 governs when the period begins, when it is interrupted, and when it runs again. (Art. 89, Revised Penal Code)¹ (Art. 90, Revised Penal Code)³ (Art. 91, Revised Penal Code)²

Requisites / Rules

• Twenty years: crimes punishable by death, reclusion perpetua, or reclusion temporal. (Art. 90, Revised Penal Code)³
• Fifteen years: crimes punishable by other afflictive penalties. (Art. 90, Revised Penal Code)³
• Ten years: crimes punishable by a correctional penalty, except those punishable by arresto mayor, which prescribe in five years. (Art. 90, Revised Penal Code)³
• Two years: libel or other similar offenses. Six months: oral defamation and slander by deed. Two months: light offenses. (Art. 90, Revised Penal Code)³
• If the penalty fixed by law is compound, use the highest penalty as the basis for applying the rules in the first three paragraphs of Article 90. (Art. 90, Revised Penal Code)³
• The period starts on the day the offended party, the authorities, or their agents discover the crime. Filing the complaint or information interrupts it. (Art. 91, Revised Penal Code)²
• The period runs again when those proceedings terminate without conviction or acquittal, or are unjustifiably stopped for a reason not imputable to the accused. (Art. 91, Revised Penal Code)²

Distinctions

Do not confuse prescription of a crime with prescription of a penalty. Article 89 lists them separately. For penalties, Article 93 instead measures the period from when the culprit should evade service of the sentence and provides different grounds for interruption. (Art. 89, Revised Penal Code)¹ (Art. 93, Revised Penal Code)⁴

Key doctrines

Discovery matters in identifying the starting point under Article 91. The Court has also recognized a distinction between registering a document in a public registry and posting social media content when considering legal consequences such as discovery or publication. That distinction does not replace Article 91’s requirement to identify who discovered the crime and when. (Art. 91, Revised Penal Code)² (Causing v. People, G.R. No. 258524, 8 April 2026)⁵

Exceptions

The prescriptive period does not run while the offender is absent from the Philippine Archipelago. Also, Article 90 gives specific, shorter periods for libel or similar offenses, oral defamation, slander by deed, and light offenses rather than applying only the general penalty-based periods. (Art. 91, Revised Penal Code)² (Art. 90, Revised Penal Code)³

Bar tip

Identify the applicable Article 90 period first. Then account for discovery, filing, any qualifying termination or stoppage of proceedings, and any absence of the offender before concluding whether the crime has prescribed. (Art. 90, Revised Penal Code)³ (Art. 91, Revised Penal Code)²