The second element of self-defense

The second element of self-defense demands that the means employed to neutralize the unlawful aggression are reasonable and necessary. It is settled that reasonable necessity of the means employed does not imply material commensurability between the means of attack and defense. What the law requires is a rational equivalence, in the consideration of which will enter as principal factors the emergency, the imminent danger to which the person attacked is exposed, and the instinct more than reason, that moves or impels the defense; and the being proportionate thereof does not depend upon the harm done, but upon the imminent danger of such injury. (Senoja vs. People, G.R. No. 160341, 19 October 2004, 440 SCRA 695; People vs. Dagani, G.R. No. 153875, 16 August 2006)