Text of the provision

Sec. 2. Rape as a Crime Against Persons . - The crime of rape shall hereafter be classified as a Crime Against Persons under Title Eight of Act No. 3815, as amended, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code. Accordingly, there shall be incorporated into Title Eight of the same Code a new chapter to be known as Chapter Three on Rape, to read as follows: Chapter Three Rape

Article 266-A. Rape; When and How Committed. - Rape is committed:

1) By a person who shall have carnal knowledge of another person under any of the following circumstances:

a) Through force, threat, or intimidation;

b) When the offended party is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious;

c) By means of fraudulent machination or grave abuse of authority; and d) When the offended party is under sixteen

(16) years of age or is demented, even though none of the circumstances mentioned above be present: Provided, That there shall be no criminal liability on the part of a person having carnal knowledge of another person under sixteen

(16) years of age when the age difference between the parties is not more than three

(3) years, and the sexual act in question is proven to be consensual, non-abusive, and non-exploitative: Provided, further, That if the victim is under thirteen

(13) years of age, this exception shall not apply. As used in this Act, non-abusive shall mean the absence of undue influence, intimidation, fraudulent machinations, coercion, threat, physical, sexual, psychological, or mental injury or maltreatment, either with intention or through neglect, during the conduct of sexual activities with the child victim. On the other hand, non-exploitative shall mean there is no actual or attempted act or acts of unfairly taking advantage of the child's position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust during the conduct of sexual activities.

2) By any person who, under any of the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 1 hereof, shall commit an act of sexual assault by inserting his penis into another person's mouth or anal orifice, or any instrument or object, into the genital or anal orifice of another person.

Article 266-B. Penalty . - Rape under paragraph 1 of the next preceding article shall be punished by reclusion perpetua. Whenever the rape is committed with the use of a deadly weapon or by two or more persons, the penalty shall be reclusion perpetua to death. When by reason or on the occasion of the rape, the victim has become insane, the penalty shall become reclusion perpetua to death. When the rape is attempted and a homicide is committed by reason or on the occasion thereof, the penalty shall be reclusion perpetua to death. When by reason or on the occasion ofthe rape, homicide is committed, the penalty shall be death. The death penalty shall also be imposed if the crime of rape is committed with any of the following aggravating/qualifying circumstances:

1) When the victim is under eighteen

(18) years of age and the offender is a parent, ascendant, step-parent, guardian, relative by consanguinity or affinity within the third civil degree, or the common-law spouse of the parent of the victim;

2) When the victim is under the custody of the police or military authorities or any law enforcement or penal institution;

3) When the rape is committed in full view of the spouse, parent, any of the children or other relatives within the third civil degree of consanguinity;

4) When the victim is a religious engaged in legitimate religious vocation or calling and is personally known to be such by the offender before or at the time of the commission of the crime;

5) When the victim is a child below seven

(7) years old;

6) When the offender knows that he is afflicted with the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) or any other sexually transmissible disease and the virus or disease is transmitted to the victim;

7) When committed by any member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines or para-military units thereof or the Philippine National Police or any law enforcement agency or penal institution, when the offender took advantage of his position to facilitate the commission of the crime;

8) When by reason or on the occasion of the rape, the victim has suffered permanent physical mutilation or disability;

9) When the offender knew of the pregnancy of the offended party at the time of the commission of the crime; and 10) When the offender knew of the mental disability, emotional disorder and/or physical handicap of the offended party at the time of the commission of the crime. Rape under paragraph 2 of the next preceding article shall be punished by prision mayor. Whenever the rape is committed with the use of a deadly weapon or by two or more persons, the penalty shall be prision mayor to reclusion temporal. When by reason or on the occasion of the rape, the victim has become insane, the penalty shall be reclusion temporal. When the rape is attempted and a homicide is committed by reason or on the occasion thereof, the penalty shall be reclusion temporal to reclusion perpetua. When by reason or on the occasion ofthe rape, homicide is committed, the penalty shall be reclusion perpetua. Reclusion temporal shall be imposed if the rape is committed with any of the ten aggravating/ qualifying circumstances mentioned in this article.

Article 266-C. Effect of Pardon . - The subsequent valid marriage between the offended party shall extinguish the criminal action or the penalty imposed. In case it is the legal husband who is the offender, the subsequent forgiveness by the wife as the offended party shall extinguish the criminal action or the penalty: Provided, That the crime shall not be extinguished or the penalty shall not be abated if the marriage is void ab initio .

Article 266-D. Presumptions . - Any physical overt act manifesting resistance against the act of rape in any degree from the offended party, or where the offended party is so situated as to render her/him incapable of giving valid consent, may be accepted as evidence in the prosecution of the acts punished under

Article 266-A.

The Anti-Rape Law of 1997, Republic Act No. 8353 (1997), Section 2. Base text verified word-for-word against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings and the Official Gazette. The Article 266-A heading, the paragraph-1 opening and paragraph 1(d) are the text of Republic Act No. 11648 (2022), verified against the LawPhil and Supreme Court E-Library copies of that Act.

What this section means

Reclassifies rape from a crime against chastity into a crime against persons — so it is prosecuted de oficio, without needing the offended party's complaint — and writes the whole law of rape into the Revised Penal Code as Articles 266-A to 266-D. Article 266-A defines rape by carnal knowledge (gender-neutral since RA 11648) and rape by sexual assault; Article 266-B fixes the penalties, from reclusion perpetua up through the ten qualifying circumstances (victim under 18 and offender a parent or guardian, victim below 7, offender knew of HIV infection, and others); Article 266-C makes a subsequent valid marriage — or, for a husband-offender, the wife's forgiveness — extinguish the criminal action, which is also the provision recognising marital rape; Article 266-D governs presumptions on resistance. Under RA 11648 the statutory-rape age is sixteen, with a narrow close-in-age exemption for consensual, non-abusive, non-exploitative acts where the age gap is three years or less — never available if the victim is under thirteen.

Related provisions

Article 266-A as amended. The opening of Article 266-A above is the text of Republic Act No. 11648 (2022): rape by carnal knowledge is now defined gender-neutrally (“a person who shall have carnal knowledge of another person”), and the statutory-rape age in paragraph 1(d) is sixteen years, with a close-in-age exemption (age difference of not more than three years, consensual, non-abusive, non-exploitative — unavailable where the victim is under thirteen). Most reproductions of RA 8353 still print the original 1997 wording (“a man”, “a woman”, “under twelve (12) years of age”). Check which version any source you rely on is giving you.

The death penalty. Article 266-B above repeatedly refers to the penalty of death. Republic Act No. 9346 (2006) prohibits the imposition of the death penalty; where the law provides it, reclusion perpetua without eligibility for parole is imposed instead.

A defect in the received text. The first sentence of Article 266-C reads “the subsequent valid marriage between the offended party shall extinguish the criminal action” in all three sources checked (LawPhil, ChanRobles and the Official Gazette) — words appear to have dropped out after “offended party”. The provision has always been applied as referring to marriage between the offended party and the offender. The text is reproduced as the sources print it. Separately, every source renders the first qualifying circumstance of Article 266-B as “l)” — a shared scanning artifact; it is printed above as “1)”, which the enumeration that follows (2) through 10) makes certain.

Cases citing this section

Note. The text above is reproduced in full from Republic Act No. 8353, verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings. The annotation around it is the work of Vivas & Nobles Law Office and is 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.