Short answer. No. Under Article 52 of the Revised Penal Code, an accomplice in a consummated crime gets the penalty next lower in degree than the one prescribed for the principal. The law treats an accomplice as less blameworthy than the person who actually carried out the felony, so the penalty is stepped down.
What the law says
The penalty next lower in degree than that prescribed by law for the consummated felony shall be imposed upon the accomplices in the commission of a consummated felony.
Revised Penal Code, Article 52 — Penalty For Accomplices In A Consummated Crime. Read the full provision →
One degree lower than the principal
Article 52 sets the penalty for accomplices in a consummated felony: the penalty next lower in degree than that prescribed by law for the consummated felony. The starting point is the penalty the law fixes for the principal — the person who actually committed the crime — and the accomplice is placed one full degree below that. This is a graded system: the Revised Penal Code deliberately punishes those who merely help less than those who do the deed. So an accomplice is not punished as heavily as the principal. The reduction is built into the structure of the Code and applies as a matter of law, not as a discretionary act of leniency by the judge.
Who is an accomplice
The stepped-down penalty matters only if the person truly is an accomplice, which is a specific role, not a catch-all. Broadly, an accomplice is one who, without being a principal, cooperates in the execution of the offence by prior or simultaneous acts — someone who knowingly helps the principal but is not the one whose act directly produces the crime, and who did not induce or indispensably enable it. This is a narrower and less culpable role than that of a principal, and it is the reason the law lowers the penalty. Whether a particular person acted as an accomplice or as a principal is often the real battleground, because the label determines which penalty rule applies.
"Consummated" is only part of the picture
Article 52 speaks specifically of an accomplice in a consummated felony — a crime that was fully carried out. The Code treats the stage of the crime as a separate variable: attempted and frustrated felonies carry their own reduced penalties, and an accomplice's penalty is calculated against that framework. In other words, two things are being scaled at once — how far the crime progressed, and whether the person was a principal or an accomplice. This article isolates one combination: accomplice plus consummated crime, giving the penalty one degree below the principal's. Other combinations are governed by the neighbouring provisions that address the different stages and the different degrees of participation.
What this does not decide
Article 52 fixes the relationship between the accomplice's penalty and the principal's; it does not tell you the actual prison term, which depends on the specific felony charged and on other rules that modify penalties, such as aggravating or mitigating circumstances and the rules for applying penalties. It also does not settle whether a given accused is an accomplice at all — that turns on the facts of participation and is frequently contested. Because so much rides on that classification, anyone facing a charge as an alleged accomplice, or unsure whether their role fits that description, should obtain individual legal advice rather than assume how Article 52 will apply.