Sec. 27.
Offer of compromise not admissible. – In civil cases, an offer of compromise is not an
admission of any liability, and is not admissible in evidence against the
offeror. In criminal cases, except those involving quasi-offenses (criminal negligence)
or those allowed by law to be compromised, an offer of compromise by the
accused may be received in evidence as an implied admission of guilt.
A plea of guilty later withdrawn, or an unaccepted offer of
a plea of guilty to a lesser offense, is not admissible in evidence against the
accused who made the plea or offer.
An offer to pay or
the payment of medical, hospital or other expenses occasioned by an injury is
not admissible in evidence as proof of civil or criminal liability for the
injury.
Offer
of compromise in civil cases
In civil cases, an
offer of compromise is not an admission of any liability, and is not an
admission against the offeror.
Note that the offer
of compromise in civil cases is not admissible only as evidence of liability.
If the offer of compromise is offered as evidence on other matters (e.g. amount
of liability), then the evidence is admissible.
Offer
of compromise in criminal cases
1. An offer of compromise by the accused may be
received in evidence as an implied admission of guilt. However, the accused may
be permitted to prove that such offer was not made under consciousness of guilt
but to avoid the risks of criminal actions against him (US vs. Maqui, 27 Phil 97).
Example:
Although the marriage of the accused in a rape case extinguishes the penal
action (Art. 344, RPC, Alonto vs.
Savellano, Jr., 287 SCRA 245), an offer of marriage is, generally speaking,
an admission of guilt (People vs. Bulos,
G.R. No. 123542, June 26, 2001).
2.
There is no implied admission of guilt if the offer of compromise is in
relation to
(a)
quasi-offenses (criminal negligence); or
(b) in
those cases allowed by law to be compromised (e.g. BIR can compromise tax cases.
Sec. 204 RA 8424)
Plea
of guilty later withdrawn
A plea of guilty
later withdrawn, is not admissible in evidence against the accused who made the
plea.
An
unaccepted plea of guilty to a lesser offense
An unaccepted plea
of guilty to a lesser offense, is not admissible in evidence against the
accused who made the plea or offer. (Cross-reference: Rule 116, Sec. 1(f), Rule
118, Secs. 1 and 2)
An
offer to pay or the payment of medical, hospital or other expenses
An offer to pay or
the payment of medical, hospital or other expenses occasioned by an injury is
not admissible in evidence as proof of civil or criminal liability for the
injured party. Such humanitarian acts
or charitable responses should be encouraged and rewarded, instead of being
discouraged or penalized.
Cases
Veradero
v. Insular Lumber, 46
Phil. 176 (1924) – evidence on an offer to compromise is admissible even
in civil cases if it is to prove amount of a liability and not the liability
itself.
US
v. Torres,
34 Phil. 994 (1916) – offer of
compromise in criminal cases inadmissible when accused shows that it was made
not under a consciousness of guilt, but merely to avoid inconvenience of
imprisonment or for some other reason; in this case, the law allowed
compromise, thus the offer to compromise is not admitted.
People
v. Godoy,
250 SCRA 676 (1995) – offer to
compromise made by a person other than the accused is inadmissible if the
accused repudiated the actions of such person by raising the trial court’s
admission of evidence of such offer as an error.
People
v. de Guzman, 265 SCRA 228
(1996) – the offer to compromise made by a person other than the accused
was admitted in evidence because the accused failed to repudiate such acts by
raising the trial court’s admission of evidence on such offer as an error.
People
v. Yparriguirre, 268 SCRA 35
(1997) – whether a complaint has been filed or not is irrelevant as to
the admissibility of an offer to compromise.
People vs. Amiscua (1971) - In a rape case, an offer to compromise for a
monetary consideration, and not to marry the victim, is an implied admission of
guilt.
People vs. Valdez (1987) - An offer of marriage by the accused during the
investigation of the rape case is also an admission of guilt.
People
v. Maqui,
27 Phil. 97 (1914)
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