Text of the provision

Art. 124. Arbitrary detention. -Any public officer or employee who, without legal grounds, detains a person, shall suffer: 1. The penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period, if the detention has not exceeded three days; 2. The penalty of prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods, if the detention has continued more than three but not more than fifteen days; 3. The penalty of prision mayor, if the detention has continued for more than fifteen days but not more than six months; and 4. That of reclusion temporal, if the detention shall have exceeded six months. The commission of a crime, or violent insanity or any other ailment requiring the compulsory confinement of the patient in a hospital, shall be considered legal grounds for the detention of any person.

Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, Act No. 3815, as amended. Reproduced in full from the official enactment and verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings.

What this article means

A public officer or employee who detains a person without legal grounds is punished on a sliding scale: arresto mayor in its maximum period to prisión correccional in its minimum period if the detention did not exceed three days; prisión correccional in its medium and maximum periods if it ran more than three but not more than fifteen days; prisión mayor if more than fifteen days but not more than six months; and reclusión temporal if it exceeded six months. Commission of a crime, violent insanity, or any ailment requiring compulsory hospital confinement counts as a legal ground for detaining a person.

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Related provisions

On this text. This article is reproduced as the Revised Penal Code enacted it, verified word-for-word against two independent sources. Republic Act No. 10951 (2017) revised the penalty amounts in many other articles of this Code; where an amount appears below it is the figure this article itself carries.

Cases interpreting this article

Note. The text of the provision above is reproduced in full from the official enactment (Act No. 3815), verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings. The Revised Penal Code has been amended many times; this page reproduces the text as those sources carry it. The annotation and commentary around it are the work of Vivas & Nobles Law Office and are general legal information, not legal advice. How a provision applies to a particular situation depends on facts that only a lawyer reviewing your case can assess.