Institution of criminal action

When a criminal action is instituted, the civil action for the recovery of civil liability arising from the offense charged shall be deemed instituted with the criminal action unless the complainant waives the civil action, reserves the right to institute it separately or institutes the civil action prior to the criminal action.

Note that, when a crime is committed, civil damages arising therefrom may be recovered. When a criminal action is filed in court, said civil damages are implicitly sought for in the same action. This is unless any of the three exceptions above is present.

Unless the civil action has been instituted prior to the criminal action, the reservation of the right to institute separately the civil action shall be made during arraignment.

In case a civil liability is imposed or damages are awarded, the filing and other legal fees shall be deducted from the award in accordance with Rule 141 of the Rules of Court, and the fees shall constitute a first lien on the judgment award. The damages awarded in cases where there is no private offended party, less the filing fees, shall accrue to the funds of the agency charged with the implementation of the environmental law violated. The award shall be used for the restoration and rehabilitation of the environment adversely affected. (Section 1, Rule 10 of the Rules of Court)