Does injuring my own parent or a teacher carry a heavier penalty than injuring anyone else?

The rule sits inside one band of injury

Art. 265 deals with the middle band: injuries not covered by the graver articles ahead of it, but which shall incapacitate the offended party for labor for ten (10) days or more, or shall require medical assistance for the same period. The heavier penalty for injuring a parent is written into this article and applies to injuries of that description. Where the harm is lighter it falls under the article on slight physical injuries, and where it is graver it falls under the articles before this one, each of which has its own scheme. So the first question in any case is always which band the injuries belong to.

The list is closed, and wider than most people expect

The relationships that trigger the heavier penalty are named: parents, ascendants, guardians, curators, teachers, or persons of rank, or persons in authority. Two features are worth noticing. It reaches beyond the family, so a teacher is treated in the same way as a grandparent. And it is a list, not a principle, which means that a relationship of respect or dependence not on it — an employer, an older sibling, a neighbour who raised you informally — does not by itself bring the clause into play, however the parties themselves would describe the bond.

Two further aggravating strands in the same article

The article adds a fine where the injuries were inflicted with the manifest intent to insult or offend the injured person, or under circumstances adding ignominy to the offense, which is directed at the manner of the attack rather than at who was hurt. The amount of that fine, along with peso figures across the Code, was revised by later legislation and should not be taken from an old printing. There is also a proviso for persons in authority: the heavier penalty applies only where the act does not amount to the separate crime of assault upon such a person.

What a case of this kind is decided on

Three things carry it, and none of them is how the incident felt. The medical findings fix the period of incapacity or treatment, and so fix the band. Proof of the relationship — a birth or civil registry record, a school appointment, an official designation — fixes whether the heavier penalty is engaged. And the circumstances of the act itself bear on the insult and ignominy clause. Take those documents, with the dates, to counsel early. Family cases in particular are often settled or worsened by what is said in the first days.

Related provisions

• Revised Penal Code, Article 265 — Less Serious Physical Injuries
• Revised Penal Code, Article 266 — Slight Physical Injuries