Practice question
A court has properly credited a timely voluntary guilty plea. The accused also proves a separate spontaneous and unconditional surrender to a person in authority before actual arrest. The prosecutor says both can never be considered because they appear in Article13(7)'s same paragraph. Which is correct?
- The plea automatically erases the surrender's legal significance.
- Surrender can count only if the accused pleads not guilty forever.
- The paragraph requires the court to ignore both.
- The circumstances are distinct and may both be credited when separately established, subject to the governing penalty rules.
- Two mitigating circumstances always require acquittal.
Legal references
- https://lawphil.net/statutes/acts/act1930/act_3815_1930.html — Revised Penal Code Article13(2) and(7).
- https://elibrary.judiciary.gov.ph/thebookshelf/showdocs/1/70223 — Loza v. People, G.R.258592, August12 2025, MAIN en banc opinion, voluntary surrender and totality of circumstances.
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