Short answer. No, not if he is an appointive public officer. The Revised Penal Code punishes an appointive official who, during his term, directly or indirectly becomes interested in any transaction of exchange or speculation within the territory subject to his jurisdiction. Even an indirect interest is enough to make it a crime.
What the law says
any appointive public officer who, during his incumbency, shall directly or indirectly become interested in any transaction of exchange or speculation within the territory subject to his jurisdiction
Revised Penal Code, Article 215 — Prohibited Transactions By Officials. Read the full provision →
The prohibited transaction
Article 215 targets self-dealing by officials who could exploit their position. It penalizes any appointive public officer who, during his incumbency, shall directly or indirectly become interested in any transaction of exchange or speculation within the territory subject to his jurisdiction. The concern is that an official with authority over an area could use inside knowledge or influence to profit from speculative dealings there. So the law forbids him from becoming interested in transactions of exchange or speculation in the very territory he governs. It is the mixing of public power with private speculative gain, within his own turf, that the article criminalizes.
'Directly or indirectly' closes the loopholes
The reach of the phrase directly or indirectly is what gives the rule teeth. An official cannot escape by keeping his name off the papers while arranging to benefit through a spouse, a relative, a nominee, or a company he quietly controls. If he stands to gain from the speculative transaction in his jurisdiction, the indirect route is treated the same as an open one. This mirrors a theme running through anti-conflict provisions: a prohibition that could be defeated by using a front would protect nothing, so the law follows the real interest rather than the formal appearance.
Who and where it applies
Two limits define the offense. First, it is aimed at an appointive public officer — one who holds office by appointment. Second, the forbidden interest must arise within the territory subject to his jurisdiction; the danger the law addresses is the official trading on the area he actually controls. The provision is also concerned with transactions of exchange or speculation, not every ordinary purchase an official might make for personal use. The offense lies in an incumbent appointee taking a speculative interest inside the domain his office covers.
The penalty today
The punishment is prisión correccional in its minimum period, or a fine, or both. The fine figures in the current text were set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the monetary penalties throughout the Revised Penal Code; under that amendment the fine for this offense ranges from forty thousand to two hundred thousand pesos. Older copies of the Code still show the far smaller 1930 amounts, which no longer govern, so any source should be checked against the amended figures. Because whether a particular dealing amounts to a prohibited speculative interest is fact-specific, the situation should be reviewed carefully.