Revised Penal Code, Article 91 — When Prescription Starts Running

What this article means

The clock on a criminal case starts when the crime is discovered by the offended party, the authorities or their agents. It is interrupted by the filing of the complaint or information and resumes if the case ends without conviction or acquittal, or is unjustifiably stopped for a reason not the accused’s fault; and it does not run at all while the offender is out of the country.

Questions about this provision

• Does filing the complaint stop the prescriptive period from running?
• I only discovered the offense years later — does the prescriptive period run from the act or from my discovery?
• The case was dismissed without a verdict — does the prescriptive clock start running again?
• The person I want to charge has been abroad for years — is the prescriptive period still running?

Related provisions

• Article 89 — How Criminal Liability Is Extinguished.
• Article 92 — When Penalties Prescribe.

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

• Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.