Direct Assault

Article
148. Direct Assault
Acts punished
 1. Without public uprising, by employing force or
intimidation for the attainment of any of the purposes

enumerated in defining the crimes of rebellion and
sedition;
 Elements
 a. Offender employs force or intimidation;
 b. The aim of the offender is to attain any of the purposes
of the crime of rebellion or any of the objects of the crime

of sedition;
 c. There is no public uprising.
Article 148. Direct Assault
2. Without public uprising, by attacking, by employing force or by seriously
intimidating or by seriously resisting any person in authority or any of his
agents, while engaged in the performance of official duties, or on occasion
of such performance.
Elements
 a. Offender makes an attack, employs force, makes a serious
intimidation, or makes a serious resistance;
 b. The person assaulted is a person in authority or his agent;
 c. At the time of the assault, the person in authority or his agent is
engaged in the actual performance of official duties, or that he is

assaulted by reason of the past performance of official duties;
 d. Offender knows that the one he is assaulting is a person in authority
or his agent in the exercise of his duties.

 e. There is no public uprising.
 If a judge was killed while he was in a party drinking, the
killing is not the direct assault, but murder. There could
be direct assault if the offender killed
the judge simply because the judge is so strict in the
fulfillment of his duty. It is the spirit of hate which is
the essence of direct assault.
 So, where the spirit is present, it is always complexed
with the material consequence of the unlawful act.
 The only time when it is not complexed is when
material consequence is a light felony, that is, slight
physical injury.
 Direct assault absorbs the lighter felony; the crime

of direct assault can not be separated from the material
result of the act.
 Robinhood broke into a National Food Authority
warehouse and lamented sufferings of the people. He
called on people to help themselves to all the rice. He did
not even help themselves to a single grain. What crime is
committed?
 The crime committed was direct assault. There was
no robbery for there was no intent to gain. The
crime is direct assault by committing acts of sedition
under Article 139(5), that is, spoiling of the property, for
any political or social end, of any person municipality or
province or the national government of all or any its
property, but there is no public uprising.
 In the second form of direct assault, it is also important
that the offender knew that the person he is attacking is
a person in authority or an agent of a person in
authority, performing his official functions.
 No knowledge, no lawlessness or contempt.
 Two persons were quarreling and a policeman in civilian clothes
arrived and stops them, but one of the protagonists stabs the
policeman, there would be no direct assault unless the offender
knew that he is a policeman. In this respect it is enough that the
offender should know that the offended party was exercising
some form of authority.
 It is not necessary that the offender knows what is meant by
person in authority or an agent of one because ignorantia legis
neminem excusat.
 Person in authority is any person directly vested with
jurisdiction, whether as an individual or as a member of some
court or government corporation, board, or commission.
 A barangay chairman is deemed a person in authority.
 Agent of a person in authority is any person who by
direct provision of law or by election or by appointment by
competent authority, is charged with the maintenance of
public order and the protection and security of life and
property, such as a barangay councilman, barrio policeman,
barangay leader and any person who comes to the aid of a
person in authority.
Who are deemed persons in authority and agents of persons in
authority under Article 152
 A person in authority is one directly vested

with jurisdiction, that is, the power and authority
to govern and execute the laws.
 An agent of a person in authority is one charged with
(1)the maintenance of public order and (2)
the protection and security of life and property.
 Examples of persons in authority (not exclusive)
 1. Municipal mayor;
 2. Division superintendent of schools;
 3. Public and private school teachers;
 4.Teacher-nurse;
 5. President of sanitary division;
 6. Provincial fiscal;
 7. Justice of the Peace;
 8. Municipal councilor;
 9. Barrio captain and barangay chairman.
 In applying the provisions of Articles 148 and 151 of this Code,
 A. Teachers
 B. Professors and persons charged with the supervision of public
or duly recognized private schools, colleges and universities, and

 C. Lawyers in the actual performance of their professional duties
or on the occasion of such performance, shall be deemed

PERSONS IN AUTHORITY. (As amended by PD No. 299, Sept. 19,
1973 and Batas Pambansa Blg. 873, June 12, 1985).
AGENT by Assistance
 Non-PIA/APIA helping the Person in Authority (PIA)
becomes an Agent of Person in Authority (by assistance).
Article 149. Indirect Assault
 Elements
 1. A person in authority or his agent is the victim of any
of the forms of direct assault defined in Article 148;
 2. A person comes to the aid of such authority or his
agent;
 3. Offender makes use of force or intimidation upon
such person coming to the aid of the authority or his
agent.
Article 149. Indirect Assault
 The victim in indirect assault should be a private

person who comes in aid of an agent of a person in
authority. The assault is upon a person who comes in
aid of the person in authority. The victim cannot be
the person in authority or his agent.
 There is no indirect assault when there is no
direct assault.
 Take note that under Article 152, as amended, when any person
comes in aid of a person in authority, said person at that moment is no
longer a civilian -he is constituted as an agent of the person in
authority. (Agent by Assistance) If such person were the one attacked,
the crime would be direct assault. Due to the amendment of Article
152, without the corresponding amendment in Article 150, the crime
of indirect assault can only be committed when assault is
upon a civilian giving aid to an agent of the person in
authority. He does not become another agent of the person in
authority.
OFFENDER
(X)
PIA (A) APIA (B)
STRANGER
(C)
Article 151. Resistance and Disobedience to A
Person in Authority or the Agents of Such Person
 Elements of resistance and serious disobedience under the first

paragraph
 1. A person in authority or his agent is engaged in the performance of official
duty or gives a lawful order to the offender;
 2. Offender resists or seriously disobeys such person in authority or his
agent;
 3. The act of the offender is not included in the provision of Articles 148, 149
and 150.
 Elements of simple disobedience under the second paragraph
 1. An agent of a person in authority is engaged in the performance of official
duty or gives a lawful order to the offender;
 2. Offender disobeys such agent of a person in authority;
 3. Such disobedience is not of a serious nature.

Direct Assault

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Article

intimidation for the attainment of any of the purposes

 b. The aim of the offender is to attain any of the purposes

of the crime of rebellion or any of the objects of the crime

engaged in the actual performance of official duties, or that he is

or his agent in the exercise of his duties.

 Direct assault absorbs the lighter felony; the crime

 A person in authority is one directly vested

 B. Professors and persons charged with the supervision of public

or duly recognized private schools, colleges and universities, and

or on the occasion of such performance, shall be deemed

 The victim in indirect assault should be a private

PIA (A) APIA (B)

 Elements of resistance and serious disobedience under the first

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