Short answer. The usual charge is alarms and scandals under Article 155 of the Revised Penal Code, which punishes a person who, whether intoxicated or not, causes a disturbance or scandal in a public place, or who disturbs the public peace while wandering about at night. Serious disturbances fall under Article 153 instead.
What the law says
Any person who, while intoxicated or otherwise, shall cause any disturbance or scandal in public places
Revised Penal Code, Article 155 — Alarms And Scandals. Read the full provision →
What Article 155 covers
Article 155 lists four separate acts, and a noisy drunk at night can fall under two of them. The third covers a person who disturbs the public peace while wandering about at night or while engaged in any other nocturnal amusements. The fourth covers anyone who, intoxicated or otherwise, causes a disturbance or scandal in a public place. Being drunk is not itself the offence — the disturbance is. The other two paragraphs deal with firing guns, rockets or firecrackers within a town or public place, and with taking an active part in a charivari or other disorderly gathering that is offensive to another or prejudicial to public tranquillity.
The penalty, and why the peso figure matters
The penalty is arresto menor or a fine, and arresto menor is the lightest deprivation of liberty the Code provides. The fine figure now printed in the article — not exceeding forty thousand pesos — is the amount set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the fines and property values throughout the Revised Penal Code. Many older copies of the Code, including printed reviewers and free websites, still carry the 1930 amounts, so a figure you find elsewhere may simply be out of date. Check which version of the Code your source is reproducing before you rely on any peso amount in it.
When it becomes the graver Article 153 instead
Article 155 applies only if the circumstances do not make Article 153 applicable — the article says so in its own closing proviso. Article 153 punishes a serious disturbance in a public place, office or establishment, or the interruption of public performances, functions, gatherings or peaceful meetings, and it carries a much heavier penalty. It becomes graver still where the disturbance is tumultuous, which the Code defines as one caused by more than three persons who are armed or provided with means of violence. So the same night can be a light offence or a serious one depending on how many people joined in, what they carried, and how badly the peace was broken.
What this does not solve
A criminal complaint is a slow answer to a problem happening right now, and Article 155 does not cover much of what neighbours actually complain about. Ordinary loud videoke, a noisy party or a barking dog is generally a matter for the local government's ordinances and nuisance rules rather than this article. If the man damages property, threatens or strikes someone, or enters a home, those are separate offences with their own, heavier penalties. Contemporaneous notes of dates and times, and video if it is safe to take, are worth far more than a recollection given weeks later. Repeated incidents involving the same person are best raised with counsel before the pattern hardens.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 155 — Alarms And Scandals
- Revised Penal Code, Article 153 — Tumults And Public Disturbances