Crimes Against Int'l Law, Genocide, and Humanity

State policies and guiding principles

Section 2 states that the Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national policy and adopts the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land.
Section 2 mandates adherence to a policy of peace, equality, justice, freedom, cooperation and amity with all nations.
Section 2 requires full respect for human rights, including the rights of indigenous cultural communities and other vulnerable groups, such as women and children.
Section 2 recognizes the responsibility of the State and other sectors to resolve armed conflict to promote the goal “Children as Zones of Peace.”
Section 2 commits the State to ensure that the most serious international crimes must not go unpunished, with effective national prosecution to end impunity.
Section 2 requires that persons suspected or accused of grave international crimes receive a fair and prompt trial in strict accordance with national and international law and fair-trial standards.
Section 2 requires protection for victims, witnesses, and their families, and provides for accessible and gender-sensitive avenues of redress for victims of armed conflict.
Section 2 provides that applying the Act does not affect the legal status of the parties to a conflict, nor give implied recognition of the status of belligerency.

Definitions and key concepts

Section 3 defines “Apartheid” as inhumane acts committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group or groups, committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.
Section 3 defines “Arbitrary deportation or forcible transfer of population” as forced displacement by expulsion or other coercive acts from the area in which persons are lawfully present, without grounds permitted under domestic or international law.
Section 3 defines “Armed conflict” as any use of force or armed violence between States or protracted armed violence between governmental authorities and organized armed groups, or between such groups within a State, when the situation gives rise to the application of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, including common Article 3; it includes international and non-international armed conflicts and excludes internal disturbances or tensions such as riots and isolated and sporadic acts of violence.
Section 3 defines “Effective command and control” (or “effective authority and control”) as the material ability to prevent and punish the commission of offenses by subordinates.
Section 3 defines “Enforced or involuntary disappearance of persons” as arrest, detention, or abduction with authorization, support, or acquiescence of a State or political organization, followed by refusal to acknowledge deprivation of freedom or to give information on fate or whereabouts, with intention of removing protection of the law for a prolonged period.
Section 3 defines “Hors de combat” to include persons in the power of an adverse party, persons who clearly express an intention to surrender, or persons rendered unconscious or otherwise incapacitated by wounds or sickness, with the condition that such persons do not act hostilely and do not attempt to escape.
Section 3 defines “Perfidy” as acts inviting the confidence of an adversary to believe protected entitlement under international humanitarian law, including feigning negotiation under a flag of truce, feigning surrender, feigning incapacitation, feigning civilian/noncombatant status, and feigning protective status using UN or neutral/emblem/uniform indicators.
Section 3 defines “Torture” as intentional infliction of severe pain or suffering (physical, mental, or psychological) upon a person in custody or under control of the accused, excluding pain or suffering arising only from lawful sanctions.
Section 3 defines “Works and installations containing dangerous forces” as works or installations whose attack may release dangerous forces causing severe losses among the civilian population, namely dams, dikes, and nuclear, electrical generation stations.
Section 3 defines “Military necessity” as employing measures indispensable to achieve a legitimate aim of the conflict and not otherwise prohibited by international humanitarian law.

Crimes under international humanitarian law

Section 4 defines “war crimes” (or “crimes against International Humanitarian Law”) for purposes of the Act.
In an international armed conflict, Section 4 covers grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, including: willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment including biological experiments; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health; extensive destruction and appropriation of property not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly; willfully depriving a prisoner of war or other protected person of rights of fair and regular trial; arbitrary deportation or forcible transfer or unlawful confinement; taking of hostages; compelling a prisoner of war or protected person to serve the forces of a hostile power; and unjustifiable delay in repatriation of prisoners of war or other protected persons.
In a non-international armed conflict, Section 4 covers serious violations of common Article 3 to the four (4) Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, including acts committed against persons taking no active part in hostilities, and includes: violence to life and person (including willful killings, mutilation, cruel treatment, torture); outrages upon personal dignity (including humiliating and degrading treatment); taking of hostages; and sentences/executions without previous judgment by a regularly constituted court affording judicial guarantees recognized as indispensable.
Section 4 also covers other serious violations of the laws and customs applicable in armed conflict, within the framework of international law, including (among others) directing attacks against civilian population and civilian objects; attacks on buildings dedicated to religion, education, art, science, charitable purposes, historic monuments, and hospitals/places where sick and wounded are collected (subject to a doubt presumption); attacks on humanitarian assistance or peacekeeping personnel and missions under UN Charter entitlement; excessive incidental effects on civilians or the natural environment relative to concrete and direct military advantage; attacks on works or installations containing dangerous forces with excessive expected loss/injury; and using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare including willfully impeding relief supplies.
Section 4 includes war crimes such as: attacking or bombarding undefended towns/villages/dwellings/buildings not military objectives; killing or wounding a person hors de combat including surrendered at discretion; improper use of flag of truce, enemy/UN military insignia and protective emblems resulting in death or serious injury or capture; physical mutilation or prohibited medical/scientific experiments; killing, wounding or capturing by resort to perfidy; declaring no quarter will be given; destroying or seizing enemy property unless imperatively demanded by necessities of war; pillage; ordering displacement of civilians for conflict-related reasons unless security/imperative military reasons demand; transferring occupier civilian population into occupied territory; and committing outrages upon personal dignity and prohibited sexual violence including rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence constituting a grave breach or serious violation.
Section 4 includes war crimes relating to protection of immunity of points/areas and prohibitions such as utilizing civilians/protected persons to render points immune; compelling hostile-party nationals in international armed conflict to take part in operations against their own country; and unlawful judicial measures against hostile nationals.
Section 4 includes child-related war crimes: conscripting, enlisting, or recruiting children under fifteen (15) years into national armed forces; conscripting, enlisting or recruiting children under eighteen (18) years into armed force or group other than the national armed forces; and using children under eighteen (18) years to participate actively in hostilities.
Section 4 includes prohibited means of warfare such as poison or poisoned weapons; asphyxiating/poisonous gases and analogous liquids/materials/devices; bullets that expand or flatten easily in the human body; and weapons/methods causing superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering or inherently indiscriminate weapons in violation of international humanitarian law.
Section 4 provides that any person found guilty of committing any of the acts specified therein shall suffer the penalty provided under Section 7.

Genocide and genocide incitement

Section 5 defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, religious, social, or any other similar stable and permanent group as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members; deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Section 5 prohibits direct and public incitement of others to commit genocide.
Section 5 provides that any person found guilty of committing the acts specified in Section 5(a) and Section 5(b) shall suffer the penalty provided under Section 7.

Other crimes against humanity

Section 6 defines other crimes against humanity as the listed acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack.
Section 6 includes willful killing, extermination, enslavement, arbitrary deportation or forcible transfer of population, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law, torture, and specified sexual violence of comparable gravity including rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity.
Section 6 includes persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender, sexual orientation, or other universally recognized impermissible grounds, in connection with any act referred to in the same paragraph or any crime defined in the Act.
Section 6 includes enforced or involuntary disappearance of persons, apartheid, and other inhumane acts of similar character intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to body or mental or physical health.
Section 6 provides that any person found guilty of committing any of these acts shall suffer the penalty provided under Section 7.

Penalties and forfeiture of unlawful gains

Section 7 sets the base penalty for persons convicted of acts under Sections 4, 5, and 6 as reclusion temporal in its medium to maximum period and a fine ranging from PHP 100,000.00 to PHP 500,000.00.
Section 7 authorizes imposition of reclusion perpetua and a fine ranging from PHP 500,000.00 to PHP 1,000,000.00 when justified by extreme gravity, especially where the crime results in death or serious physical injury, or constitutes rape, considering the individual circumstances of the accused.
Section 7 provides a specific penalty for inciting others to commit genocide under Section 5(b): prision mayor in its minimum period and a fine ranging from PHP 10,000.00 to PHP 20,000.00.
Section 7 requires the court to order forfeiture of proceeds, property, and assets derived, directly or indirectly, from the genocide-incitement crime, without prejudice to the rights of bona fide third (3rd) parties.
Section 7 mandates corresponding accessory penalties under the Revised Penal Code, especially where the offender is a public officer.

Criminal liability principles and command responsibility

Section 8 makes a person criminally liable as a principal if the person: commits the crime (whether individually, jointly, or through another person regardless of the other person’s criminal responsibility); or orders, solicits, or induces the commission of the crime which in fact occurs or is attempted; or contributes to commission or attempted commission by intentional means aimed at furthering the group’s criminal activity/purpose (where it involves crimes defined in the Act) or by knowledge of the group’s intention to commit the crime.
Section 8 makes a person criminally liable as an accomplice if the person aids, abets, or otherwise assists in the commission or attempted commission, including providing the means.
Section 8 establishes attempt liability where the person takes action commencing execution by means of a substantial step but the crime does not occur due to circumstances independent of the person’s intention.
Section 8 provides a no-punishment rule for attempt when the person completely and voluntarily gives up the criminal purpose by abandoning the effort to commit or preventing completion.
Section 9 states that the Act applies equally to all persons without distinction based on official capacity; official capacity never exempts liability and does not by itself reduce sentence.
Section 9 provides that immunities or special procedural rules under Philippine law other than the established constitutional immunity of the Philippine President from suit during tenure do not bar the court from exercising jurisdiction.
Section 9 provides that immunities under international law may limit the Act’s application within the bounds established under international law.
Section 10 makes a superior criminally responsible as a principal for crimes committed by subordinates under effective command/control or authority/control due to failure to properly exercise control, when: the superior knew or should have known the subordinates were committing or about to commit the crimes; and the superior failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures to prevent/repress commission or to submit the matter to competent authorities for investigation and prosecution.
Section 11 provides non-prescription: crimes defined and penalized under the Act, their prosecution, and execution of sentences are not subject to prescription.
Section 12 states that orders from a superior do not relieve criminal responsibility unless: the person was under a legal obligation to obey the order; the person did not know the order was unlawful; and the order was not manifestly unlawful.
Section 12 provides that orders to commit genocide or other crimes against humanity are manifestly unlawful for purposes of this defense.

Protections for victims and witnesses

Section 13 requires courts to take appropriate measures to protect victims’ and witnesses’ safety, physical and physiological well-being, dignity, and privacy, considering factors including age, gender, and health, and the nature of the crime—especially where it involves sexual or gender violence or violence against children.
Section 13 requires the prosecutor to take such protective measures particularly during investigation and prosecution, ensuring they are not prejudicial or inconsistent with the accused’s rights to a fair and impartial trial.
Section 13 permits the court, as an exception to public hearings, to conduct any part of proceedings in camera or allow evidence via electronic or other special means to protect victims and witnesses or an accused.
Section 13 requires these special measures in cases of victims of sexual violence or children who are victims or witnesses unless otherwise ordered by the court, considering all circumstances including the views of the victim or witness.
Section 13 requires the court to permit victims’ views and concerns to be presented and considered at appropriate stages when victims’ personal interests are affected, ensuring this is not prejudicial to or inconsistent with the accused’s rights and a fair and impartial trial.
Section 13 allows victims’ views and concerns to be presented through legal representatives when the court considers it appropriate under the established rules of procedure and evidence.
Section 13 authorizes the prosecution to withhold evidence or information, and submit a summary instead, when disclosure under the Act may lead to the grave endangerment of a witness’s security for family during proceedings prior to trial, subject to non-prejudicial consistency with the accused’s rights and fair trial.

Reparations to victims and trial guidance

Section 14 requires the court to follow principles on reparations to or in respect of victims, including restitution, compensation, and rehabilitation.
Section 14 authorizes, upon request or on its own motion in exceptional circumstances, the court to determine the scope and extent of damage, loss, and injury to or in respect of victims and state the principles on which it acts in its decision.
Section 14 authorizes the court to make an order directly against a convicted person specifying appropriate reparations to or in respect of victims, including restitution, compensation, and rehabilitation.
Section 14 requires the court, before making a reparations order, to invite and take account of representations from or on behalf of the convicted person, victims, or other interested persons.
Section 14 provides that nothing in this section prejudices victims’ rights under national or international law.

International law applicability, suppletory rules

Section 15 directs Philippine courts in applying and interpreting the Act to be guided by: the 1948 Genocide Convention; the 1949 Geneva Conventions I-IV and their 1977 Additional Protocols I and II and 2005 Additional Protocol III; the 1954 Hague Convention on cultural property and its protocols (First and Second Protocol); the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child and its 2000 Optional Protocol on children in armed conflict; rules and principles of customary international law; judicial decisions of international courts and tribunals; relevant international human rights instruments; other relevant international treaties and conventions ratified or acceded to by the Philippines; and teachings of highly qualified publicists and authoritative commentaries as subsidiary means.
Section 16 provides that the provisions of the Revised Penal Code and other general or special laws apply suppletorily to the provisions of the Act.

Jurisdiction and special courts

Section 17 grants the Philippines jurisdiction over persons suspected or accused of crimes defined and penalized under the Act regardless of where the crime is committed, if any of these conditions is met: the accused is a Filipino citizen; the accused, regardless of citizenship or residence, is present in the Philippines; or the accused committed the crime against a Filipino citizen.
Section 17 authorizes Philippine authorities, in the interest of justice, to dispense with investigation or prosecution if another court or international tribunal is already conducting investigation or prosecution of the same crime.
Section 17 authorizes Philippine authorities, under the same interest-of-justice authority, to surrender or extradite suspected or accused persons in the Philippines to the appropriate international court, if any, or to another State under applicable extradition laws and treaties.
Section 17 prohibits initiating criminal proceedings against foreign nationals if they have been tried by a competent court outside the Philippines for the same offense and were acquitted, or if convicted, have already served their sentence.
Section 18 provides that the Regional Trial Court has original and exclusive jurisdiction over crimes punishable under the Act, with appeals/elevation to the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court as provided by law.
Section 18 directs the Supreme Court to designate special courts to try cases involving crimes punishable under the Act.
Section 18 provides that for these cases, the Commission on Human Rights, Department of Justice, Philippine National Police, or other concerned law enforcement agencies designate prosecutors or investigators as the case may be.
Section 18 requires effective training for judges, prosecutors, and investigators—especially those designated for purposes of the Act—in human rights, International Humanitarian Law, and International Criminal Law.

Separability, repeal, and effectivity

Section 19 establishes separability: if any part or provision is held unconstitutional or invalid, the unaffected parts remain in full force and effect.
Section 20 repeals or modifies inconsistent laws, presidential decrees and issuances, executive orders, and rules and regulations, to the extent of inconsistency.
Section 21 fixes effectivity at fifteen (15) days after complete publication in the Official Gazette or in two (2) newspapers general circulation.