Practice question
A statute defines an offense by requiring a specified family relationship, and that relationship is already proved as an element of the offense. At sentencing, the prosecutor seeks to count the very same relationship again as an independent aggravating circumstance under Article 15. No distinct basis is asserted. What is the proper response?
- Count it twice because every family relationship is aggravating.
- Count it again whenever the prosecutor requests it.
- Apply Article 62 and reject duplicative aggravation for the relationship already constitutive of the offense.
- Acquit because related persons can never commit crimes against each other.
- Treat every family relationship as mitigating instead.
Legal references
- Revised Penal Code, Act No. 3815, specified articles, as amended: https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/28/20426; Articles 15 and 62.
- Ilayat v People, G.R. No. 259916, July 25, 2025, en banc main decision, intoxication proof: https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/1/70091
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