Short answer. Yes, if you cannot furnish a bond. Article 2083 provides that where a person bound to give a bond cannot do so, a pledge or mortgage considered sufficient to cover his obligation is admitted in its place. So real or personal property put up as security can substitute for a personal surety when none can be found.
What the law says
a pledge or mortgage considered sufficient to cover his obligation shall be admitted in lieu thereof
Civil Code, Article 2083 — Pledge/Mortgage in Lieu of Bond. Read the full provision →
Property can stand in for a personal bond
Where the law or a court requires a bond, what is usually wanted is a solvent person who will answer for the obligation. Not everyone can produce one. Article 2083 supplies the alternative: if the person bound to give a bond should not be able to do so, a pledge or mortgage considered sufficient to cover his obligation shall be admitted in lieu thereof. Instead of a personal surety standing behind you, you put up property — pledging something movable or mortgaging something immovable — as the security. The obligation to give assurance is met not by another person's promise but by a thing that can be sold to satisfy the debt if you default.
It is a fallback, not a free choice
The substitution is available because of an inability, not simply because property is more convenient. The article speaks of the person who should not be able to furnish the required bond. The personal bond remains the primary expectation; the pledge or mortgage steps in when that primary route is genuinely closed. This ordering matters if the requirement is being enforced against you: the option to give security in property is your safety net when you cannot find a qualified bondsman, rather than a menu item you may pick over a bond that you could in fact provide.
The security must be sufficient
Whatever property is offered has to be considered sufficient to cover his obligation. A token pledge or a mortgage over property worth far less than the debt does not discharge the requirement, because the whole purpose is to give the same real assurance a bond would have given. The value and enforceability of the security are therefore assessed before it is accepted. A pledge works for movable property and a mortgage for immovable, but in either form the question is the same: is what you are putting up actually enough to answer for the obligation it is meant to secure.
What to prepare
If you intend to rely on Article 2083, be ready to show two things: that a conforming personal bond is beyond your reach, and that the property you offer is adequate and can genuinely be resorted to for the obligation. Choose between a pledge and a mortgage according to whether the asset is movable or immovable, and expect its sufficiency to be scrutinised rather than assumed. Property that is already heavily encumbered, or whose value is doubtful, is unlikely to be admitted, because it would leave the very gap the security exists to close.