Short answer. Pulling away, without more, points to resistance under Article 151 of the Revised Penal Code rather than direct assault under Article 148. The graver offence needs an attack, serious intimidation or serious resistance — or a weapon, or the laying of hands on a person in authority.
What the law says
any person who not being included in the provisions of the preceding articles shall resist or seriously disobey any person in authority, or the agents of such person, while engaged in the performance of official duties
Revised Penal Code, Article 151 — Resistance And Disobedience To Authority. Read the full provision →
Article 151 is the residual offence
Notice how Article 151 opens: it applies to a person not being included in the provisions of the preceding articles. That is a deliberate ordering. The graver direct assault provision is considered first, and only what falls short of it lands in Article 151. The conduct covered is resisting or seriously disobeying a person in authority or an agent of such person while engaged in the performance of official duties. The article also has a lower tier of its own: where disobedience to an agent of a person in authority is not of a serious nature, the penalty drops to arresto menor or a small fine. Instinctively jerking an arm away is not the same as fighting an officer.
What pushes it up to direct assault
Article 148 requires an attack, the employment of force, serious intimidation, or serious resistance against a person in authority or an agent, while engaged in official duties or on occasion of that performance. It then has an aggravated tier — a heavier penalty where the assault is committed with a weapon, where the offender is himself a public officer or employee, or where the offender lays hands upon a person in authority. The difference between the two articles is therefore one of degree and of quality: passive or momentary non-cooperation on one side, and force or intimidation directed at the officer on the other.
Person in authority, agent, and official duty
Both articles depend on two facts that are easy to overlook. The officer must fall within the category invoked — the Code distinguishes a person in authority from an agent of such a person, and the aggravating circumstance about laying hands applies to the former. And the officer must have been engaged in the performance of official duties, or, for direct assault, acting on occasion of that performance. Where an officer was acting outside his functions altogether, or in a purely private quarrel, neither article fits, and the incident is judged as an ordinary encounter between private persons.
The peso figures, and what to do
The fines in both articles — up to one hundred thousand pesos for resistance, up to two hundred thousand for direct assault, and a two thousand to twenty thousand peso range for non-serious disobedience — were set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised fines throughout the Revised Penal Code. Older copies print the 1930 amounts and are unreliable. Practically: charges of this kind are very often filed alongside whatever the original stop was about, and body-worn or bystander video is decisive because the whole question is degree. Secure any footage immediately and seek counsel before giving a written statement.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 151 — Resistance And Disobedience To Authority
- Revised Penal Code, Article 148 — Direct Assault On Authority