Text of the provision

Art. 268. Slight illegal detention. - The penalty of reclusion temporal shall be imposed upon any private individual who shall commit the crimes described in the next preceding article without the attendance of any of the circumstances enumerated therein.The same penalty shall be incurred by anyone who shall furnish the place for the perpetration of the crime. If the offender shall voluntarily release the person so kidnapped or detained within three

(3) days from the commencement of the detention, without having attained the purpose intended, and before the institution of criminal proceedings against him, the penalty shall be prisión mayor in its minimum and medium periods and a fine not exceeding One hundred thousand pesos (₱100,000).

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

Reclusion temporal is imposed on a private individual who commits kidnapping or serious illegal detention without any of the aggravating circumstances listed in the preceding article, and on anyone who furnishes the place for it. If the offender voluntarily releases the victim within three (3) days of the start of the detention, without attaining his purpose and before criminal proceedings begin, the penalty drops to prisión mayor in its minimum and medium periods 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.