Short answer. Yes. Article 202 of the Revised Penal Code still treats prostitution as a crime, though it defines the offender narrowly and imposes only a light penalty. Its fines were updated by Republic Act No. 10951 in 2017, so any older reproduction of the peso figures is out of date.
What the law says
women who, for money or profit, habitually indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct, are deemed to be prostitutes
Revised Penal Code, Article 202 — Prostitutes; Penalty. Read the full provision →
Who the article actually reaches
The provision is written narrowly. For its purposes, only women who, for money or profit, habitually indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct, are deemed to be prostitutes. Three elements stand out. The offender contemplated is a woman; the acts must be for money or profit; and they must be habitual, not a single isolated instance. A one-off encounter, or conduct with no commercial motive, does not fit the definition. The article's gendered wording is itself significant — on its face it does not label a man a prostitute, which is one reason other statutes are needed to reach the wider trade.
The penalty, as it reads today
Prostitution under this article is a minor offense. A first conviction draws arresto menor — a short period of imprisonment — or a fine, with a heavier bracket for a repeat offender. The peso amounts, however, are not the 1930 figures still printed in old copies of the Code. Republic Act No. 10951, enacted in 2017, rewrote the fines throughout the Revised Penal Code, so a first-offense fine now runs up to Twenty thousand pesos, and recidivism carries a longer penalty and a larger fine. Always check that any figure you rely on reflects that 2017 revision rather than the superseded original.
What this article leaves to other laws
Article 202 is a narrow, low-level offense and does not carry the weight of the modern response to the sex trade. It says little about the buyer, and its definition does not fit the pimp, recruiter or operator who profits from another's exploitation. Those actors, and situations involving force, deceit or minors, are addressed by separate special legislation — most importantly the country's anti-trafficking law — which imposes far graver penalties and shifts the focus toward the exploiters rather than the exploited. Reading this article alone gives a badly incomplete picture of how the law now treats commercial sex.
Why the distinction matters to a worried reader
For someone facing an accusation, the elements are the practical battleground: the prosecution must show the conduct was habitual and for money or profit, and a case that cannot establish those does not fit this article. For the many people the trade exploits rather than enriches, the more relevant protections lie in the anti-trafficking framework, which may treat a person as a victim to be assisted rather than an accused to be punished. This page explains what the statute says in general terms; how it applies to a particular situation depends on facts that need to be examined individually.