Definition and Nature:
Arson is defined as the malicious destruction of property by fire. It is a crime against property.
Classification:
- Destructive Arson: This is governed by Article 320 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC), as amended by Republic Act (RA) No. 7659.
- Simple Arson or Other Cases of Arson: This is covered by Section 3 of Presidential Decree (P.D.) No. 1613. P.D. No. 1613 is generally not included in Article 320.
Distinction and Purpose:
There is a distinction between Destructive Arson under Article 320, RPC, and Simple Arson under P.D. 1613.
- Destructive Arson is characterized as heinous crimes for which reason of inherent or manifest wickedness, viciousness, atrocity and perversity are repugnant and outrageous to the common standards and norms of decency and morality in a just, civilized and ordered society. The reason for the law is self-evident: to effectively discourage and deter the destruction of properties and protect the lives of innocent people. Exposure to a brewing conflagration leaves only destruction and despair, hence the State mandates greater retribution to authors of heinous crime.
- Simple Arson are crimes committed under P.D. No. 1613 and have a lesser degree of perversity and viciousness. The law punishing Simple Arson under P.D. No. 1613 recognizes the need to lessen the severity of punishment commensurate to the act or acts committed, depending on the particular facts and circumstances of each case. The purpose of the law on Simple Arson is to prevent the high incidence of fires and other crimes involving destruction, protect the national economy, and preserve the social, economic and political stability of the nation.
Properties Covered (Simple Arson under P.D. 1613):
Simple Arson covers the burning of specific types of property, including:
- Any building used as offices of the government or any of its agencies.
- Any inhabited house or dwelling.
- Any industrial establishment, shipyard, oil well or mine shaft, platform or tunnel.
- Any plantation, farm, pastureland, growing crop, grain field, orchard, bamboo grove or forest.
- Any rice mill, sugar mill, cane mill or mill central.
- Any railway or bus station, airport, wharf or warehouse. Simple Arson under P.D. No. 1613 particularly contemplates burning inhabited houses or dwellings.
Intent in Arson:
The intention of the offender is material in the classification of crimes committed by fire.
- When fire is used with the intent to kill a particular person who may be in a house and that objective is attained by burning the house, the crime committed is murder.
- If the intent is to kill by means of fire, the offense is murder.
- When the main objective of the offender is to burn the building, and death results by reason or on the occasion of the arson, the crime is simply arson, and the resulting homicide is absorbed by the crime of arson. Many decisions hold there is no complex crime of Arson with homicide. The reason being that arson is itself the end, and death is a mere consequence.
- If the objective is to kill a particular person, and fire is resorted to as a means to cover up the killing, then there are two separate and distinct crimes committed: homicide/murder and arson.
Proof:
The corpus delicti of arson may be proved by circumstantial evidence. Simple arson may be proven solely through circumstantial evidence.
Stages and Types:
- Attempted arson: When a person intends to burn a structure, collects some rags, soaks them with gasoline and places them beside the wall, and is discovered while he is about to light a match.
- Frustrated arson: When the offender is able to set fire to the rags but the rags are put out before the buildings are burned.
- Consummated arson: There is consummated arson when the contents of the building were set to fire even if no part of the building is burned. The crime of arson is consummated, notwithstanding the fact that the fire was afterwards extinguished, for, once the fire has been started, the consummation of the crime of arson does not depend upon the extent of the damage cause.
- Conspiracy to commit arson: Conspiracy to commit arson is punishable under P.D. No. 1613.
Related Circumstances:
Arson can be committed for the purpose of concealing or destroying evidence of another violation of law, defrauding creditors, or to collect insurance. Price or reward can be appreciated as a generic aggravating circumstance if qualifying circumstances already exist.