Sample Form
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES
[NAME OF COURT]
[BRANCH NUMBER]
[CITY OR PROVINCE]
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES,
Plaintiff,
-versus- Criminal Case No. [CASE NUMBER]
For: THEFT
[NAME OF ACCUSED],
Accused.
x---------------------------------------x
INFORMATION
The undersigned Prosecutor accuses [NAME OF ACCUSED] of the crime of
THEFT, committed as follows:
That on or about [DATE OF COMMISSION], in [CITY OR MUNICIPALITY],
[PROVINCE], Philippines, and within the jurisdiction of this Honorable
Court, the said accused, with intent to gain and without the knowledge
and consent of the owner, [NAME OF OFFENDED PARTY], did then and there
willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously take, steal, and carry away
[DESCRIPTION OF PERSONAL PROPERTY], valued at [AMOUNT], belonging to
said [NAME OF OFFENDED PARTY], to the damage and prejudice of the latter
in the aforesaid amount.
CONTRARY TO LAW.
[CITY OR MUNICIPALITY], Philippines, [DATE OF SIGNING].
[NAME OF PROSECUTOR]
Prosecutor
[PROSECUTOR OFFICE]
[OFFICE ADDRESS]
CERTIFICATION
I certify that a preliminary investigation/inquest has been conducted in
accordance with law; that there is reasonable ground to believe that the
offense charged has been committed and that the accused is probably
guilty thereof; and that this Information is filed with the approval of
the [CITY/PROVINCIAL PROSECUTOR].
[NAME OF PROSECUTOR]
Prosecutor
Approved:
[NAME OF CITY/PROVINCIAL PROSECUTOR]
[CITY/PROVINCIAL PROSECUTOR]
Nature of the Information
An information is the prosecutor's written accusation charging a person with a criminal offense before a court. It is not a narration of all evidence, but it must state the ultimate facts that make the accused answerable for the crime charged.
The information performs three connected functions. It informs the accused of the nature and cause of the accusation, fixes the offense on which trial will proceed, and supplies the basis for determining jurisdiction, venue, possible double jeopardy, and the judgment that may be rendered.
When the charge is a consummated crime, the information must allege facts showing that the crime was completed according to the law defining it. The pleading must show not merely criminal intent or an overt act, but the existence of all acts, results, circumstances, and legal conditions necessary for the completed offense.
Consummated Crime as a Pleaded Charge
Under Article 6 of the Revised Penal Code, a felony is consummated when all the elements necessary for its execution and accomplishment are present. In special penal laws, consummation depends on the prohibited act or result described by the statute, such as sale, possession, transport, falsification, concealment, failure to remit, or unauthorized practice.
The word consummated need not always appear in the information. What matters is that the pleaded facts, if hypothetically admitted, constitute the completed crime. A label cannot cure an information that omits an essential element, and a complete factual charge is not defeated merely because it does not use technical language.
- For crimes requiring a result, the information must allege the legally relevant result, such as death, injury, damage, burning, loss, defraudation, or deprivation.
- For crimes completed by a prohibited act, the information must allege the act that the law punishes, such as possession, sale, importation, falsification, or refusal to obey a lawful order.
- For crimes requiring a particular mental state, the information must allege intent, knowledge, malice, fraud, negligence, or lack of authority when that state is part of the offense.
- For crimes whose penalty depends on value, quantity, relationship, age, status, or damage, the information must allege the fact that places the offense in the correct legal category.
Essential Contents in a Consummated Charge
Rule 110 requires the information to state the name of the accused, the designation of the offense, the acts or omissions complained of, the name of the offended party when required, the approximate date of commission, and the place where the offense was committed. These matters are not formal ornaments; they connect the accusation to a court, a person, a transaction, and a punishable offense.
| Component | Function in charging a consummated crime |
|---|---|
| Name of accused | Identifies the person required to answer and prevents uncertainty in arraignment, trial, judgment, and execution. |
| Designation of offense | States the legal name of the crime, but yields to the factual allegations if the label and facts do not match. |
| Acts or omissions | Alleges the conduct that satisfies every element of the completed offense, including the manner of commission when material. |
| Offended party | Identifies the person or entity injured, defrauded, killed, deprived, offended, or whose property or right was affected. |
| Date or approximate date | Shows temporal context, prescription, identity of the transaction, and whether a time-specific fact is material to liability or penalty. |
| Place of commission | Establishes venue and territorial jurisdiction, especially when acts occurred in different places or the result occurred elsewhere. |
| Qualifying and aggravating facts | Gives notice of facts that may change the nature of the offense or increase the penalty. |
Ultimate Facts, Not Evidentiary Detail
An information must allege ultimate facts, not legal conclusions alone and not the full evidentiary chain. Ultimate facts are the specific operative facts that, if proved, directly establish the elements of the offense.
A statement that the accused committed theft is a conclusion. A sufficient charge alleges unlawful taking of personal property belonging to another, with intent to gain and without the owner's consent. The pleading need not describe every witness, receipt, conversation, or surveillance detail that the prosecution will use to prove the taking.
The same discipline applies to violence, intimidation, deceit, falsification, abuse of confidence, negligence, conspiracy, and lack of authority. The information must state facts that make those legal concepts applicable, while leaving proof and evidentiary particulars for trial.
Completed Result and Causal Link
For result crimes, consummation depends on the completed result and its causal connection to the accused's act. The information must therefore link the act or omission to the legally relevant harm.
In killing offenses, the information must allege that the accused attacked, assaulted, shot, stabbed, poisoned, or otherwise inflicted the cause of death, and that the victim died as a consequence. Without death, the pleaded offense cannot be consummated homicide, murder, parricide, or infanticide, although another offense or lesser stage may be involved.
In physical injuries, the information must allege the injury and the fact that determines its legal seriousness, such as incapacity, medical attendance, deformity, illness, loss of use, or other legally relevant consequence. In property crimes, the information must allege deprivation, damage, loss, burning, conversion, misappropriation, or prejudice when the law treats that consequence as part of the crime.
Mental State and Unlawfulness
The traditional words willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously are useful only when supported by facts that constitute the offense. They do not replace the need to allege intent to kill, intent to gain, fraudulent intent, knowledge of falsity, deliberate possession, negligence, malice, or lack of authority when those matters are elements.
Intent may be stated expressly when the crime requires a specific intent. Knowledge must be alleged when the law punishes possession, use, uttering, sale, transport, retention, concealment, or representation only if the accused knew the relevant fact. Negligence-based offenses require allegations of the negligent act or omission and the injury or damage proximately caused by it.
Some offenses are punished as mala prohibita, where criminal intent in the classical sense is not essential. Even then, the information must allege the voluntary prohibited act and the statutory circumstances that make the conduct punishable, such as absence of license, lack of authority, prohibited quantity, public office, regulatory duty, or prohibited place.
Qualifying and Aggravating Circumstances
A circumstance that qualifies the offense or aggravates liability must be alleged in the information. The accused cannot be convicted of a higher form of the offense or suffer an increased penalty on the basis of an unalleged qualifying or aggravating fact, even if evidence of that fact appears during trial.
Qualifying circumstances change the nature of the offense, such as treachery in murder, relationship in parricide, minority and relationship in certain sexual offenses, or use of force upon things in robbery. Aggravating circumstances do not create a different crime but may increase the penalty within the range allowed by law.
The pleading must allege the factual basis of the circumstance, not merely recite its name when the name does not give adequate notice. Treachery, for example, should be supported by facts showing a mode of attack that gave the victim no real opportunity to defend and was consciously adopted. Abuse of confidence, evident premeditation, dwelling, nighttime, use of motor vehicle, or taking advantage of public position likewise requires enough factual notice to identify the circumstance relied on.
Offense-Specific Allegation Concerns
| Crime type | Consummation facts that should appear |
|---|---|
| Killing offenses | Identity of the victim, unlawful attack or act, death, causal relation, intent to kill when required, and qualifying relationship or circumstance when relied on. |
| Physical injuries | Nature of the injury, manner of infliction, offended party, duration or consequence material to classification, and any circumstance increasing liability. |
| Theft and robbery | Taking of personal property of another, intent to gain, lack of consent, value, and the violence, intimidation, force upon things, or special circumstance that distinguishes robbery from theft. |
| Estafa and other frauds | Deceit, abuse of confidence, fraudulent means, misappropriation, or false pretense; reliance or delivery when material; damage or prejudice; and value involved. |
| Falsification and perjury | Document or statement involved, false entry or assertion, legal duty or oath when required, materiality, knowledge of falsity, and capacity or participation of the accused. |
| Arson and malicious mischief | Property burned or damaged, ownership or lawful possession, act causing the burning or damage, intent or malice when required, and extent or value relevant to penalty. |
| Dangerous drugs offenses | Specific prohibited act, identity and quantity of the drug, absence of authority, participation of the accused, and transaction details sufficient to identify the charge. |
| Sexual offenses | Specific punishable act, identity of complainant, mode of commission such as force, intimidation, deprivation of reason, unconsciousness, age, or other statutory circumstance, and qualifying relationship or minority when relied on. |
| Offenses by public officers | Public office or official capacity, duty involved, act done under color of office or in relation to duty, property or right affected, and damage, benefit, prejudice, or unlawful advantage when required. |
Venue and Territorial Allegations
Venue in criminal cases is jurisdictional because the offense must generally be tried in the place where it was committed or where an essential ingredient occurred. The information must allege a place within the territorial jurisdiction of the court, or facts showing why the court may take cognizance despite dispersed acts.
For consummated offenses involving acts and results in different locations, the information should identify the place where a material element occurred. In cyber, transitory, continuing, or multi-act offenses, the venue allegation should be tied to the legally relevant act, access, transmission, delivery, receipt, deprivation, damage, or consequence that completes the offense.
The date need only be approximate unless time is a material ingredient. Time becomes material when it affects prescription, age, status, limitation, election laws, curfew or quarantine offenses, official duty periods, alibi, identity of the transaction, or a statute that punishes conduct only within a defined period.
Participation of the Accused
The information must connect each accused to the consummated offense. A person is not adequately charged by being named in the caption alone; the body of the information must allege the accused's act, omission, participation, conspiracy, cooperation, inducement, or official capacity.
When conspiracy is relied on, it should be alleged so that the act of one may be treated as the act of all. The information may state that the accused conspired and confederated with one another, but the surrounding act charged must still constitute the completed crime. Conspiracy is not a substitute for alleging the elements of the principal offense.
When the accused is charged as a public officer, corporate officer, fiduciary, custodian, parent, ascendant, employer, licensee, or person with a statutory duty, that capacity must be alleged if it is an element, qualifying circumstance, source of duty, or basis for penalty.
Value, Quantity, Age, Status, and Other Penalty Facts
Many consummated crimes require a pleaded fact that determines the grade of the offense or penalty. Value is material in theft, robbery, estafa, malicious mischief, malversation, and related property offenses. Quantity and kind are material in dangerous drugs cases and other regulated goods. Age, relationship, authority, license, office, public function, and damage may be decisive in offenses where the law attaches consequences to those facts.
If the information omits a fact needed for a higher penalty, the prosecution may be limited to the offense and penalty supported by the facts alleged. Evidence cannot supply notice that the information failed to give. The pleading must therefore include the legally operative amount, quantity, status, or circumstance when it affects liability or punishment.
Amendment, Variance, and Lesser Stages
Before plea, an information may generally be amended in form or substance with leave of court. After plea, amendment is limited to formal matters and must not prejudice the rights of the accused. A change that adds an essential element, changes the nature of the offense, increases the penalty, or introduces a new theory of liability is ordinarily substantial.
When a consummated felony is charged, conviction for an attempted or frustrated stage may be possible if the lesser stage is necessarily included in the offense charged and proved. The reverse is not true: an accused charged only with an attempted or frustrated offense cannot be convicted of the consummated offense because that would require proof of a greater completed offense not charged.
Variance between allegation and proof is tolerated only when the offense proved is included in the offense charged, or the offense charged is included in the offense proved, and the accused had adequate notice. A variance that deprives the accused of notice of an essential element is fatal.
Defective Informations and Remedies
An information that fails to charge an offense may be attacked by a motion to quash before plea. If the defect consists of uncertainty rather than absence of an element, a bill of particulars may be sought to clarify the acts, transaction, time, place, or participation charged.
A defect in an essential element is not cured by the prosecution's evidence because the accused is tried on the information, not on evidence outside the charge. Conviction must rest on facts both alleged and proved. Facts proved but not alleged cannot create criminal liability for the charged consummated offense when they are essential to that offense or to the higher penalty imposed.
Formal defects, clerical errors, or imprecise language may be corrected when the accused is not prejudiced and the amendment does not alter the theory or nature of the accusation. The controlling inquiry is whether the original information gave fair notice of the completed offense for which the accused was required to prepare a defense.
Civil Liability in the Consummated Charge
A criminal action generally includes the civil action for recovery of civil liability arising from the offense, unless the civil action has been waived, reserved when allowed, or separately instituted. For consummated crimes, the pleaded facts often establish the basis for restitution, reparation, indemnification, damages, or return of property.
Where the completed crime involves death, injury, property loss, conversion, fraud, or damage, the information should identify the offended party and the property or interest affected with enough specificity to connect criminal liability with civil consequences. The prosecution need not plead a separate civil complaint, but the criminal facts must identify the harm caused by the offense.
Pleading Precision
A legally effective information for a consummated crime is concise, factual, and element-complete. It identifies the accused, the offended party, the place, the approximate time, the completed act or result, the required mental state, the statutory or qualifying facts relied on, and the circumstance that places the case within the court's jurisdiction.
The information should not confuse evidence with elements, label with substance, or aggravation with qualification. Its sufficiency is measured by whether the accused can understand the completed offense charged, prepare a defense, plead the judgment as a bar to another prosecution for the same offense, and be convicted only for a crime whose essential facts were alleged.