Short answer. Yes, at least in wording. Article 89 of the Revised Penal Code lists amnesty and absolute pardon as separate grounds for extinguishing criminal liability, but only amnesty carries the express phrase 'completely extinguishes the penalty and all its effects.' Absolute pardon appears as its own listed ground, without that broader effects language attached to it.
What the law says
By amnesty, which completely extinguishes the penalty and all its effects. 4. By absolute pardon.
Revised Penal Code, Article 89 — How Criminal Liability Is Extinguished. Read the full provision →
What the law says
By amnesty, which completely extinguishes the penalty and all its effects.
Revised Penal Code, Article 89 — How Criminal Liability Is Extinguished. Read the full provision →
Two separate grounds, listed side by side
Article 89 does not treat amnesty and pardon as versions of the same thing. It lists seven distinct ways criminal liability is totally extinguished, and amnesty and absolute pardon each get their own numbered entry: 3. By amnesty, which completely extinguishes the penalty and all its effects. 4. By absolute pardon. Placing them as separate, independent grounds, rather than folding pardon under amnesty or treating one as a subtype of the other, signals that the law does not consider them interchangeable, even though both end criminal liability under this same article.
Only amnesty carries the 'all its effects' language
The statute's own wording draws the distinction. For amnesty, the text is explicit: By amnesty, which completely extinguishes the penalty and all its effects. That extra phrase, and all its effects, is not repeated for absolute pardon, which is simply listed right after as its own ground with no similar qualifier attached. Textually, that is the basis for saying amnesty is described as reaching further than a bare pardon: Article 89 ties amnesty to consequences beyond the penalty itself, in language it does not use for pardon.
What the article does not spell out about pardon
Article 89 tells you that an absolute pardon extinguishes criminal liability, listed as its own ground, but it does not describe how far a pardon's effect reaches beyond that. It is more accurate to say the provision is silent on the finer boundaries of an absolute pardon, rather than assume it automatically matches amnesty's broader wording just because both appear in the same numbered list. Where the statute is quiet, filling that gap with confident detail would go beyond what Article 89 itself actually says on the page.
Both end criminal liability, which is what this article covers
For the specific question this article answers, whether criminal liability itself survives, the result is the same for both: neither amnesty nor an absolute pardon leaves criminal liability standing once granted. Article 89 groups them among the seven grounds by which liability is totally extinguished. What differs, on the face of the text, is the language describing the reach of each: amnesty is expressly tied to the penalty and all its effects, while absolute pardon is not given that same wording in this particular provision, and a reader should not assume the two are identical in scope beyond that.