WHY ARE WE STILL USING A PENAL CODE FROM 1932?

The Revised Penal Code took effect in 1932.

It still contains many of the basic rules used today when courts deal with crimes such as murder, homicide, physical injuries, theft, robbery and other offenses.

But Philippine criminal law did not stop developing in 1932.

Congress has changed portions of the Code many times. It has also passed separate laws whenever new crimes, new technology or new public problems needed rules of their own.

That is how we ended up with separate laws dealing with cybercrime, human trafficking, terrorism, corruption and many other offenses.

There is nothing unusual about updating an old law.

The problem comes when updates keep piling up in different places.

A lawyer, prosecutor, judge or ordinary person trying to understand the law may need to check the Revised Penal Code, amendments to that Code and separate criminal laws before getting the complete picture.

The DOJ says that years of doing this have created overlaps and inconsistencies in the country's criminal laws.

There is also the obvious problem of age.

A criminal code written before computers, the internet and modern international crime networks was never designed around the kinds of offenses government deals with today.

That is why the discussion has moved beyond simply amending another article of the old Code.

WHAT WOULD A NEW CRIMINAL CODE ACTUALLY DO?

The basic idea is to bring more of the country's criminal laws into one organized system.

The DOJ has spent years working on a proposed Criminal Code with the help of legal experts and other groups. Its Criminal Code Committee finished a draft in late 2025, and lawmakers began filing bills based on the broader reform effort in 2026.

Several measures are now before the House.

These include House Bills 4374, 5446, 7132 and 7206, along with another proposal, House Bill 7632.

The bills are not identical.

But they share the same general concern: Philippine criminal law has been amended and expanded so many times that lawmakers are now asking whether it makes more sense to reorganize the system instead of continuing to patch it.

That could mean bringing provisions from the Revised Penal Code and some special criminal laws together, removing unnecessary overlaps and creating a more consistent way of classifying crimes and penalties.

It would also give lawmakers a chance to revisit old legal language and rules that may no longer fit modern life.

For ordinary Filipinos, the simplest way to understand the proposal is this:

Government is considering replacing an old rulebook that has been repeatedly patched for almost a century with a new rulebook designed to make the pieces fit together better.

WHAT COULD ACTUALLY CHANGE FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE?

Some of the changes being discussed are substantial.

One proposal is to use community service for certain light offenses. That could give courts another option in some cases instead of relying only on imprisonment.

The proposed Criminal Code also deals more directly with crimes that cross borders or use modern technology. That matters when an offense involves computer systems, people in different countries or acts committed outside the Philippines that still have a strong connection to Filipinos or Philippine interests.

Another major area is criminal responsibility involving companies and other organizations.

Under the proposed system, there are circumstances in which a company or another legal entity could itself face criminal responsibility. That would go beyond simply identifying one employee or officer as the person responsible.

The draft also tries to bring modern crimes into a more organized criminal-law framework, including cybercrime, terrorism, genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

There are proposed changes involving sexual offenses as well, including rules dealing with consent, sexual harassment and marital infidelity.

Corruption offenses also appear in the reform effort. These include plunder, illicit enrichment and certain fraudulent acts involving government procurement.

None of that means every one of these proposals will become law exactly as written.

But it shows the size of what lawmakers are considering.

A new Criminal Code could affect more than the names of offenses. It could change how crimes are grouped, how penalties are measured, who can be held criminally responsible and how courts handle some modern forms of crime.

WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE WHO ALREADY HAVE CRIMINAL CASES?

This is where the discussion can get confusing.

Passing a new Criminal Code would not automatically erase every pending criminal case.

The Constitution protects people from being punished under a harsher criminal law passed after they committed an act. Government generally cannot make something criminal today and then punish someone for doing it yesterday when it was still legal.

The same basic protection applies when lawmakers later increase the punishment.

But Philippine criminal law also recognizes the opposite situation.

If a later criminal law is more favorable to an accused person, the more favorable rule can sometimes apply to acts committed before that new law took effect.

That principle already exists under Article 22 of the Revised Penal Code.

So imagine Congress changes the penalty for a particular offense.

If the new law makes the punishment harsher, government generally cannot simply use the harsher punishment against someone for an act committed before the change.

If the new law is more favorable, the accused may be able to benefit from it, depending on the law and the circumstances of the case.

That is why it would be misleading to say that everyone with an existing case would automatically stay under the old rules.

It would also be wrong to assume that a new Criminal Code would automatically control every old case.

The final law would need clear rules explaining how the change will work.

HAS CONGRESS ALREADY APPROVED THIS?

No.

This part is important because the phrase "new Criminal Code" can make the proposal sound more advanced than it actually is.

The House has been discussing several bills dealing with the rewrite. The Subcommittee on Penal Laws has already taken up the proposals in committee proceedings in 2026.

But the measures are still going through the legislative process.

The country has not replaced the Revised Penal Code.

The crimes, penalties and criminal procedures being used today still come from the existing Revised Penal Code and the many special laws that remain in force.

The bills can still change.

Lawmakers can remove provisions, combine proposals, rewrite penalties or decide not to adopt parts of the DOJ draft.

Even after the House settles on a version, a measure of this size would still have to go through the rest of the legislative process before it could become law.

So nobody should read a proposal in one bill today and assume that it is already the law of the Philippines.