Short answer. Who you attacked. Direct assault targets a person in authority or his agent. Indirect assault targets the civilian who came to that officer's aid while a direct assault was being committed. The victim of indirect assault holds no office at all — he is a bystander who helped.
What the law says
shall be imposed upon any person who shall make use of force or intimidation upon any person coming to the aid of the authorities or their agents on occasion of the commission of any of the crimes defined in the next preceding article
Revised Penal Code, Article 149 — Indirect Assaults. Read the full provision →
Indirect assault cannot stand alone
Article 149 of the Revised Penal Code is parasitic on the preceding article, which defines direct assault. Three things must line up. A direct assault is being committed against a person in authority or an agent of a person in authority. A private individual comes to that officer's aid on that occasion. And the offender uses force or intimidation on that helper. Remove the underlying direct assault and there is no indirect assault — the attack on the bystander becomes physical injuries, threats, or unjust vexation instead. That dependency is the single most important thing to understand about this offence.
Who is a person in authority, and who is an agent
A person in authority is one directly vested with jurisdiction, whether alone or as a member of a body — a judge, a mayor, a barangay chairman. Teachers and lawyers in the discharge of their duties are treated as persons in authority for certain purposes. An agent is someone charged with maintaining public order and protecting life and property, who by direct provision of law, election or appointment is so charged — police officers and barangay tanods are the everyday examples. The victim of indirect assault is none of these. He is an ordinary citizen, and the law shields him precisely because he stepped in when he had no duty to.
Force or intimidation, and nothing less
The article requires force or intimidation on the helper. Shouting at him, insulting him, or merely obstructing him is not enough — those may be other offences, but not this one. There is no requirement that he be injured; a serious threat that makes him back off satisfies the element. Nor does it matter whether his help was effective or even welcome. What matters is that he came to the aid of the authorities on the occasion of a direct assault and was met with force. If the officer himself is also attacked, that is a separate direct assault, charged separately.
The penalty, and why the label matters
The penalty is prisión correccional in its minimum and medium periods, together with a fine. That peso figure is the amount set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the fines throughout the Revised Penal Code — older reproductions still print the 1930 amounts and will badly understate it. In practice these charges arise from arrests that go wrong: a crowd interferes, a bystander helps the officers, and someone shoves him. Whether the incident is indirect assault, direct assault, resistance and disobedience, or plain physical injuries depends on facts that are usually disputed. No result can be promised. This page is general legal information, not advice; to have an incident reviewed, you can book a consultation.