Short answer. Under Article 83's own text, yes, the sentence would be commuted to reclusion perpetua for a person over seventy. But the death penalty itself no longer exists in the Philippines — Republic Act No. 9346 abolished it in 2006, so reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment applies instead of any death sentence, regardless of age.
What the law says
nor upon any person over seventy years of age. In this last case, the death sentence shall be commuted to the penalty of reclusion perpetua with the accessory penalties provided in article 40
Revised Penal Code, Article 83 — Suspension Of Death Sentence. Read the full provision →
What Article 83 says, as written
Article 83, as originally enacted, singles out age seventy as an automatic commutation trigger: nor upon any person over seventy years of age. In this last case, the death sentence shall be commuted to the penalty of reclusion perpetua with the accessory penalties provided in article 40. Read on its own terms, the article treats a condemned person's advanced age as a bar to actually carrying out a death sentence, converting it instead to reclusion perpetua along with specific accessory penalties.
The death penalty itself has been abolished
This article's text still refers to the death sentence because it has never been deleted from the Revised Penal Code, but Republic Act No. 9346, enacted in 2006, prohibits the imposition of the death penalty in the Philippines entirely. That means no one, regardless of age, can actually be sentenced to death today. The age-seventy commutation rule in Article 83 is not the operative protection it once was, because there is no death sentence left to commute in the first place under current law.
What applies instead of the death penalty today
Where the old law would have imposed the death penalty, current law imposes reclusion perpetua under the Revised Penal Code's own terminology, or life imprisonment where that terminology does not apply. This is the outcome for every case that would have carried a death sentence under the pre-2006 framework, not something reserved only for offenders over seventy — the abolition applies across the board, independent of the condemned person's age.
Why this matters for anyone researching this article
If you encountered Article 83 and concluded that a person's age could still mean the difference between execution and reclusion perpetua, that conclusion no longer reflects the actual state of the law. Republic Act No. 9346 makes the entire question moot, because reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment is now the applicable penalty regardless of age. Reading Article 83's text is useful for understanding the Code's structure and history, but it should not be relied on as stating the penalty a court can currently impose.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 83 — Suspension Of Death Sentence
- Revised Penal Code, Article 40 — Death: Its Accessory Penalties