Legal basis and amendments made
- Section 1 amends Article 155 of Act No. 3815.
- Section 2 amends Article 254 of Act No. 3815.
- The amendments operate on the Revised Penal Code provisions on alarms and scandals and on discharge of firearms (Sections 1–2).
Policy and purpose
- Republic Act No. 11926 amends the Revised Penal Code to penalize wilful and indiscriminate discharge of firearms by increasing and clarifying criminal liability and related consequences (Sections 1–2).
Amendment to Article 155—Alarms and Scandals
- Section 1 amends Article 155 (“Alarms and Scandals”).
- Article 155 imposes a penalty of arresto menor or a fine not exceeding PHP 40,000 upon a person who, within any town or public place, discharges any rocket, firecracker, or other explosives calculated to cause alarm or danger (Section 1).
- The penalty is tied to the act of discharging explosives designed or calculated to cause alarm or danger in a town or public place (Section 1).
Amendment to Article 254—Discharge of Firearms
- Section 2 amends Article 254 (“Discharge of Firearms”) and provides separate rules for shooting at another and for wilful and indiscriminate discharge.
- Any person who shoots at another with any firearm suffers the penalty of prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods, unless the facts make the act frustrated or attempted parricide, murder, homicide, or any other crime for which a higher penalty is prescribed by any article of the Revised Penal Code (Article 254(a) as amended by Section 2).
- Any person who wilfully and indiscriminately discharges any firearm or other device that may not have been designed as firearm, but can be functionally used as a firearm, suffers the penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum period, unless the facts constitute any other offense for which a higher penalty is prescribed (Article 254(b) as amended by Section 2).
- If the offender who commits the offense under Article 254(b) is a member of the military and military auxiliary agencies, or law enforcement agencies authorized to bear firearms, and the discharge is not in the performance of official duties, the penalty is one degree higher than that prescribed above, and the offender may be held administratively liable (Article 254(c) as amended by Section 2).
- In addition to the penalties imposed under Article 254, any firearm license or permit issued in favor of the offender is summarily cancelled, and the offender is perpetually disqualified from being granted any firearm license or permit (Article 254(c) as amended by Section 2).
Separability, repealing, and continued validity
- Section 3 provides a separability rule: if any provision or part of Republic Act No. 11926 is held invalid or unconstitutional, other provisions not affected remain valid and subsisting (Section 3).
- Section 4 repeals or modifies inconsistencies: all laws, orders, proclamations, rules and regulations, or parts thereof, inconsistent with any provision of Republic Act No. 11926 are repealed or modified accordingly (Section 4).