What Is Arresto Mayor? Duration, Offenses, and Civic Effects

Arresto mayor is a jail penalty under the Philippine Revised Penal Code lasting from one month and one day to six months. It is classified as a correctional penalty and applies to less grave felonies such as less serious physical injuries, certain forms of swindling, and unlawful arrest. The sentence is short enough that most defendants qualify for probation or community service, but a conviction still triggers automatic civic restrictions and civil liability to the victim.

How Long the Sentence Lasts

Article 27 of the Revised Penal Code fixes the full range at one month and one day to six months, counted in calendar months.¹ Article 76 then splits that range into three periods the court chooses from:²

Minimum: one month and one day to two months
Medium: two months and one day to four months
Maximum: four months and one day to six months

Which period applies depends on Article 64. With no aggravating or mitigating circumstances, the court imposes the medium period, so a baseline sentence runs two months and one day to four months. A mitigating circumstance with nothing to offset it drops the sentence to the minimum period. An unoffset aggravating circumstance pushes it up to the maximum. When both appear, the court weighs one against the other.¹

What Offenses Carry Arresto Mayor

The Revised Penal Code assigns arresto mayor to a range of offenses that cause real harm but fall short of grave felonies. The ones most often charged include:

Less serious physical injuries under Article 265: causing an injury that incapacitates the victim for labor, or requires medical treatment, for ten days or more. If the assault was meant to insult or offend, a fine is added on top of the jail time.³
Other forms of swindling under Article 316: six specific property-fraud acts, including pretending to own real property and selling it, disposing of encumbered property while claiming it is free from liens, and executing fictitious contracts. The penalty is arresto mayor in its minimum and medium periods plus a fine.
Unlawful arrest under Article 269: detaining someone without legal authority or reasonable grounds in order to deliver them to authorities.⁴

Certain low-value theft offenses also fall within this bracket.

Civic Restrictions That Come Automatically

Article 44 attaches two automatic penalties to every arresto mayor sentence: suspension of the right to hold public office and suspension of the right to vote.¹ Both run only for the duration of the sentence itself and no separate court order is needed. Once the sentence expires, both rights are restored without further proceedings. For a government employee, the suspension of the right to hold office can be more disruptive than the jail time, since even a two-month sentence means temporary loss of a civil service position.

Civil Liability to the Victim

Under Articles 100 and 104 through 110 of the Revised Penal Code, anyone criminally liable is also civilly liable to the victim.¹ That obligation covers restitution of what was taken or damaged, reparation for the damage caused, and indemnification for consequential losses to the victim, their family, or affected third parties. The liability does not vanish with the defendant: it passes to the convict’s heirs if they die before satisfying it, and the victim’s heirs can pursue the claim.

Credit for Jail Time Already Served

Many defendants sit in jail before their case is decided, and Republic Act No. 10592 amended Article 29 to count that time toward the final sentence. If you agree in writing, with counsel, to follow the same disciplinary rules as convicted prisoners, you receive full credit for every day of preventive imprisonment. If you decline, you still get four-fifths of that time.⁵

This matters more here than for longer penalties. Because arresto mayor tops out at six months, a defendant can easily already have served the full potential sentence before the case ends. If preventive imprisonment equals the maximum possible penalty and the case is still unresolved, the defendant must be released, unless they are a recidivist, habitual offender, escapee, or charged with a heinous crime.

Good Conduct Time Allowance

Prisoners who behave well earn automatic deductions. Under Article 97, as amended by RA 10592, a prisoner in the first two years of confinement receives twenty days off for each month of good behavior.⁵ Only that first bracket ever applies to arresto mayor. An additional fifteen days per month can be earned for study, teaching, or mentoring during detention. Combined, these credits can cut the actual time behind bars roughly in half.

Fines and Subsidiary Imprisonment

Some arresto mayor sentences carry a fine alongside the jail time. If you cannot pay, Republic Act No. 10159 (amending Article 39) converts the unpaid fine into additional days of confinement at a rate of one day for each amount equal to the highest prevailing minimum wage at the time of judgment.⁶

Caps keep this from running away. When the principal penalty is arresto and a fine, subsidiary imprisonment cannot exceed one-third of the original sentence, and never more than one year. When the only penalty is a fine for a less grave felony, subsidiary imprisonment tops out at six months.

Probation and Community Service

Because arresto mayor never exceeds six months, it sits well within the probation threshold. Presidential Decree No. 968 bars probation only when the maximum sentence exceeds six years.⁷ The application must be filed with the trial court within the period for perfecting an appeal, and filing it waives the right to appeal the conviction.⁸

Not everyone qualifies. Section 9 of PD 968 disqualifies:⁹

Anyone previously convicted by final judgment of an offense punished by at least one month and one day of imprisonment or a fine of at least two hundred pesos
Anyone already granted probation under the same law
Anyone convicted of a crime against the security of the State
Anyone already in custody serving a different sentence when the law took effect

The prior-conviction disqualification catches most people off guard, since even a past minor offense can knock out eligibility.

For defendants who do not pursue probation, Republic Act No. 11362 gives the court discretion to allow service of an arresto mayor sentence through community service in the locality where the crime was committed, in place of jail time.¹⁰ Violate the terms and the court revokes the arrangement and orders re-arrest to serve the full remaining term in confinement.

When the Case or Sentence Expires

Two separate deadlines matter. Under Article 90, the state has five years from the commission of the offense to file charges for a crime punishable by arresto mayor. After that, prosecution is barred regardless of the evidence.¹

The second clock runs on the penalty itself. Under Articles 92 and 93, if a convicted person evades their sentence, the government has five years from the date of evasion to enforce it. Once that window closes, the penalty can no longer be carried out.¹

1
The Lawphil Project. Act No. 3815 – The Revised Penal Code
2
Supreme Court E-Library. An Act Revising the Penal Code and Other Penal Laws
3
United Nations. Revised Penal Code of the Philippines
4
UNODC. Republic Act No. 3815 – The Revised Penal Code of the Philippines – Article 267-269
5
The Lawphil Project. Republic Act No. 10592
6
The Lawphil Project. Republic Act No. 10159
7
The Lawphil Project. Presidential Decree No. 968 – The Probation Law of 1976
8
The Lawphil Project. Republic Act No. 10707
9
Supreme Court E-Library. Presidential Decree No. 968 – Probation Law of 1976
10
The Lawphil Project. Republic Act No. 11362