Short answer. Yes. The Revised Penal Code punishes a public officer who reveals a secret learned through his office, or who wrongfully hands over papers in his charge that should not be published. The penalty depends on whether the leak caused serious damage to the public interest.
What the law says
Any public officer who shall reveal any secret known to him by reason of his official capacity, or shall wrongfully deliver papers or copies of papers of which he may have charge and which should not be published
Revised Penal Code, Article 229 — Revelation Of Secrets By An Officer. Read the full provision →
Two ways the offence is committed
The article covers both talking and handing things over. The first is revealing any secret known to him by reason of his official capacity - information that came to the officer because of the post he holds, not gossip he picked up as a private person. The second is wrongfully delivering papers or copies of papers of which he may have charge and which should not be published, which reaches the officer who forwards a scanned document, a draft, or a copy just as much as the original. Both limbs presuppose a public officer and a link between the office and the information. A private citizen who receives and repeats the leak is not covered by this particular article.
The current penalties: read them as amended by RA 10951
The fines in this article were rewritten by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which updated peso values throughout the Revised Penal Code. Any older reproduction still showing 1930s amounts is out of date and must not be relied on. As the law now stands, where the revelation or delivery caused serious damage to the public interest, the officer faces prisión correccional in its medium and maximum periods, perpetual special disqualification, and a fine not exceeding four hundred thousand pesos. Where it did not, the penalty is prisión correccional in its minimum period, temporary special disqualification, and a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand pesos. Disqualification is the part public servants tend to underestimate - it strikes at the career, not just the wallet.
What the article does not cover
Not every disclosure by a government employee is a crime. The information must genuinely be a secret held by reason of office, or a paper that should not be published; releasing what is already public, or what the law and the constitutional policy of transparency require to be disclosed, is a different matter entirely. Disclosures made through lawful channels - to an investigating body, a court, or under a statute that protects reporting of wrongdoing - are likewise not what this provision targets. Conversely, a leak done for money or a favour, or one that also exposes a private person's protected data, can attract separate liability under the anti-graft and data privacy statutes on top of this article.
If you are the officer, or the agency
Whether damage to the public interest was serious is a question of evidence, and it decides which of the two penalty brackets applies, so it is usually the fought-over issue. Administrative proceedings for the same conduct can run alongside the criminal case and move faster. Officers asked to share documents should route the request through the agency's records custodian and keep the written request and approval; agencies should mark and control sensitive material, because loose classification makes both prosecution and defence harder. Nothing here is advice on a particular case or a prediction of outcome - anyone facing a complaint or considering a disclosure should get counsel before acting.