Under the law, the acts punished as grave threats are the following:

1. By threatening another with the infliction upon his person, honor or property or that of
his family of any wrong amounting to a crime and demanding money or imposing any
other condition, even though not unlawful, and the offender attained his purpose; (take
note that all the elements of this crime so far as this act is concerned are provided in this
paragraph)
- also take note of the phrase "even though not unlawful"
- the words PERSON, HONOR, or PROPERTY here should not be interpreted literally as
a crime against persons, honor or property
2. By making such threat without the offender attaining his purpose; - under this type of
grave threat the offender threatens another with the infliction upon the person, honor or
property or his family of any wrong amounting to a crime, if the offender shall have
made the threats demanding money or imposing any other condition, even though not
unlawful, and said offender did not attain his purpose
3. By threatening another with the infliction upon his person, honor or property or that of
his family of any wrong amounting to a crime, the threat not being subject to a condition
(or no demand for money). ( which in this case must be serious and deliberate) - an
example of this type of grave threat is that the offender did not demandmoney; he did not
impose any conditions, but he is going to kill the victim

- But threatening to publish a libel and offering to prevent such publication for money is
punished under Article 356, not under Article 282.
- The threats of the third form are those made with the deliberate purpose of creating in
the mind of the person threatened the belief that the threats will be carried into effect.
- The threat should not be made in the heat of anger, because such threat is punished
under another provision of law that is Article 285, paragraph 2 of the Revised Penal
Code.

CIRCUMSTANCES WHERE THE SUPREME COURT RULED THAT THE CRIME

OF GRAVE THREAT WAS COMMITTED
• Grave threats may be committed where it was held that the indirect challenge to a gun
fight amounted to intimidation, especially when backed by two warning shots,
notwithstanding the fact that the complainant was not present at the time the challenge
was made.
* As the crime consists in threatening another with some future harm, it is not necessary
that the offended party was present at the time the threats were made. It is sufficient that
the threats, after they had been made in his absence, came to the knowledge of the
offended party.
• The crime of grave threats is consummated as soon as the threats come to the
knowledge of the person threatened.
o Threat, employed by the offender to commit acts of lasciviousness or robbery, is not a
separate crime, because it is the constitutive element of intimidation in those crimes.
o If there is another crime actually committed or the objective of the offender is another
crime, and the threat is only a means to commit it or a mere incident in its commission,
the threat is absorbed by the other crime.
 • But if the threat was made with the deliberate purpose of creating in the mind of
the person threatened, the belief that the threat would be carried into effect, the
crime committed is grave threats, and the minor crime which accompanied it
should be disregarded.

• When the act consists in materially taking possession or securing, on the spot, the
delivery of the money or other personal property, through the effect of fear or fright
which the imminence of the injury produces in the mind of the person intimidated, the
nature of the penal act is altered and constitutes, not threats, but the crime of robbery with
intimidation.

PENALTY TO BE IMPOSED
1. If the offender attained his purpose, the penalty one degree lower of the penalty for the
crime threatened to be committed shall be imposed.
2. If the offender does not attain his purpose, the penalty is two degrees lower than that
provided by law for the crime threatened to be committed.
3. When the threat is not subject to a condition, the penalty does not depend on the
penalty for the crime threatened to be committed. The penalty is fixed, that is, arresto
mayor and a fine not exceeding P500.
4. If the threat be made in writing or through a middleman, the penalty shall be imposed
in its maximum period. – circumstance qualifying the offense (source-RPD by Reyes and
some review material)