Amnesty as a Mode of Extinction of Criminal Liability

AT A GLANCE

In Trillanes IV v. Medialdea, G.R. Nos. 241494, 256660 & 256078, April 3, 2024, the Supreme Court explained amnesty looks backward and abolishes and puts into oblivion the offense itself, it so overlooks and obliterates the offense with which he is charged that the person released by amnesty stands before the law precisely as though he had committed no offense.

What is Amnesty?

In Trillanes IV v. Medialdea, G.R. Nos. 241494, 256660 & 256078, April 3, 2024, the Supreme Court explained that amnesty has long been understood as a general pardon to rebels for their treason and other high political offenses, or the forgiveness which one sovereign grants the subjects of another, who have offended by some breach of the law of nations. It is granted to classes of persons or communities who may be guilty of political offenses, generally before or after the institution of the criminal prosecution and sometimes after conviction.

Under Article 89(3) of the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, one of the mode to totally extinguish criminal liability is: 

This establishes that amnesty is a mode of extinguishing criminal liability, removing both the penalty and its effects.

The authority to grant amnesty is vested in the President under Section 19, Article VII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which provides that except in cases of impeachment, or as otherwise provided in this Constitution, the President, among others powers has the power to grant amnesty with the concurrence of a majority of all the Members of the Congress.

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