Short answer. Light threats are threats of harm that would not itself be a crime, or threats made with a weapon in a quarrel. Grave threats involve threatening a wrong that would amount to a crime. The difference lies in the harm threatened, and it changes the penalty completely.
What the law says
Any person who shall orally threaten to do another any harm not constituting a felony.
Revised Penal Code, Article 285 — Other Light Threats. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Any person who shall threaten another with the infliction upon the person, honor or property of the latter or of his family of any wrong amounting to a crime
Revised Penal Code, Article 282 — Grave Threats. Read the full provision →
The dividing line is the harm threatened, not how frightened you were
Article 282 covers a person who shall threaten another with the infliction upon the person, honor or property of the latter or of his family of any wrong amounting to a crime. That is grave threats. Article 285 catches what is left over. Its third paragraph reaches any person who shall orally threaten to do another any harm not constituting a felony. So if the speaker promised something that would itself be a crime — to kill you, burn your house, hurt your child — the complaint is for grave threats. If the promised harm would not be a crime at all, such as ruining your business standing or getting you thrown out of a group, it falls under the lighter article. Your fear is real either way; the classification turns on the content of the words.
Three separate situations are punished as light threats
Article 285 does not only cover words. Its first paragraph reaches a person who threatens another with a weapon, or who draws a weapon in a quarrel, unless it be in lawful self-defence — no words are needed, and no condition has to be attached. Its second paragraph covers a threat of non-criminal harm made in the heat of anger where the speaker afterwards shows he did not persist in the idea. That paragraph carries its own proviso that the circumstances must not bring the act within Article 282. Its third paragraph is the general oral threat of harm short of a felony. Each stands on its own facts, and a complaint can be built on any one of them.
Penalty amounts here were rewritten in 2017
Article 285 as it now reads imposes arresto menor in its minimum period or a fine not exceeding Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000). Those peso figures are the current ones because Republic Act No. 10951 (2017) revised the fines and property values throughout the Revised Penal Code. Many books, websites and even printed copies still reproduce the 1930 amounts, which are far smaller. If someone quotes you a fine of a few hundred pesos for this offence, they are reading a pre-2017 text. Always check which version of the Code a source is giving you before relying on the number, and confirm the current figure against the amended text.
What light threats do not cover, and what a complaint costs you
This article does not reach threats that are already punished more heavily elsewhere. If a demand for money or a condition was attached to a threat of criminal harm, you are outside Article 285 entirely. It also does not create a civil right of its own — damages for the distress caused come from separate provisions of the Civil Code, pleaded separately. And it binds ordinary private persons; it is not a rule about workplace or online conduct as such, though words typed rather than spoken raise their own questions about which offence fits. Because a light offence prescribes quickly, delay is the most common way a genuine complaint is lost. Write down the exact words while you remember them, keep any recording or message, note who else heard it, and take that to a lawyer promptly.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 285 — Other Light Threats
- Revised Penal Code, Article 282 — Grave Threats