ARTICLE 14, PARAGRAPH 3

Aggravating Circumstances

That the act be committed with insult or in disregard of the respect due the offended party on account of his rank, age, or sex, or that is be committed in the dwelling of the offended party, if the latter has not given provocation.

BASIS
- Greater perversity shown in the personal circumstances of the offended and the place of the commission of crime

REQUIREMENTS
- Crime against person or honor

EXCEPTIONS:
- When the offender acted with passion and obfuscation
- When there exists a relationship between the offended party and the offender
- When the condition of being a woman is indispensable in the commission of a crime (parricide, rape, abduction, seduction—sex is not aggravating)
With insult or in disregard
- It must be proven with a specific fact or circumstance that the accused deliberately intended to offend or insult the sex or age of the offended party.
Meaning of rank
- Rank refers to a high social position or standing as a grade in the armed forces; or to a graded official standing or social position or station; or to the order or place in which said officers are placed in the army and navy in relation to others; or to the designation or title of distinction conferred upon an officer in order to fix his relative position in reference to other officers in matters of privileges, precedence, and sometimes of command or by which to determine his pay and emoluments as in the case of army staff or officers; or to a grade or official standing, relative position in civil or social life, or in any scale of comparison, status, grade, including its grade, status or scale of comparison within a position.

That the crime be committed in the dwelling of the offended party

- The abuse of confidence which the offended party reposed in the offender by opening the door to him
- The violation of the sanctity of the home by trespassing therein with violence or against the will of the owner
> The offended party must not give provocation is a condition sine qua non
> Provocation
- Given by the owner of the dwelling
- Sufficient
- Immediate to the commission of the crime
> All the conditions under provocation must be present otherwise there is no provocation
> There must be a close relation between provocation and commission of crime in the dwelling
> Prosecution must prove that no provocation was given by the offended party
> The circumstance applies even if the offender did not enter the dwelling
> Even if the killing took place outside, it is aggravating if the commission of the crime begun in the dwelling
> Applies to adultery if she lives in the dwelling of the husband unless the paramour also lives there
> Dwelling
o Dependencies, the foot of the staircase and enclosure under the house

EXCEPTIONS
- When both offender and offended party are occupants of the same house
- When the robbery is committed by the use of force upon things because it is inherent
- In the crime of trespass to dwelling, it is inherent or included by law in defining the crime
- When the owner of the dwelling gave sufficient and immediate provocation
- When the dwelling where the crime was committed did not belong to the offended party
- When the rape was committed in the ground floor of a two-story structure, and the lower floor is not a private place of abode or residence (example: video rental store)

The circumstance applies in the following cases even though the crime was not committed in the dwelling of the victims
- The victim was raped in the boarding house where she was a bedspacer
- The victims were raped in their paternal home where they were guests at the time and did not reside there
- The victim was killed in the house of her aunt where she was living with her niece. (Dwelling may mean temporary dwelling)
- The victims, while sleeping as guests in the house of another person, were shot to death in that house