Text of the provision

Art. 148. Direct assaults - Any persons who, without a public uprising, shall employ force or intimidation for the attainment of any of the purposes enumerated in defining the crimes of rebellion and sedition, or shall attack, employ force, or seriously intimidate or resist any person in authority of any of his agents, while engaged in the performance of official duties, or on occasion of such performance, shall suffer the penalty of prisión correccional in its medium and maximum periods and a fine not exceeding Two hundred thousand pesos (₱200,000), when the assault is committed with a weapon or when the offender is a public officer or employee, or when the offender lays hands upon a person in authority. If none of these circumstances be present, the penalty of prisión correccional in its minimum period and a fine not exceeding One hundred thousand pesos (₱100,000) shall be imposed.

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

Direct assault covers using force or intimidation without a public uprising to attain the ends of rebellion or sedition, or attacking or seriously intimidating a person in authority or his agent in the performance of official duties. The penalty is prisión correccional in its medium and maximum periods and a fine not exceeding Two hundred thousand pesos (₱200,000) when the assault is committed with a weapon, when the offender is a public officer or employee, or when the offender lays hands on a person in authority; otherwise it is prisión correccional in its minimum period and a fine not exceeding One hundred thousand pesos (₱100,000).

Questions about this provision

Related provisions

Penalty amounts. The text above is the article as amended by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the property values and fines throughout this Code. Older reproductions of the Revised Penal Code still print the 1930 amounts — for theft and estafa they show 12,000 and 22,000 pesos where the current figures run to millions. Check which version any source you rely on is giving you.

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.