Short answer. Yes. Article 14 makes penal laws obligatory upon all who live or sojourn in the Philippine territory. A foreigner, whether visiting or residing here, is bound by Philippine criminal law the same as a citizen, subject only to the principles of public international law and to treaty stipulations.
What the law says
Penal laws and those of public security and safety shall be obligatory upon all who live or sojourn in the Philippine territory, subject to the principles of public international law and to treaty stipulations.
Civil Code, Article 14 — Territoriality of Penal Laws. Read the full provision →
The territorial rule
Article 14 states the territorial principle of criminal law: penal laws and those of public security and safety shall be obligatory upon all who live or sojourn in the Philippine territory, subject to the principles of public international law and to treaty stipulations. The key words are all who live or sojourn. Citizenship is irrelevant to whether the criminal law binds you inside the country; presence is what counts. A tourist here for a week and a foreigner residing here for years are equally answerable to Philippine penal law for what they do on Philippine soil. The law reaches the territory, and everyone within it.
Why nationality does not exempt a foreigner
It sometimes surprises visitors that their home country's law does not travel with them as a shield. Criminal law is an expression of a State's sovereignty over its own territory; within the Philippines, Philippine penal law governs, not the foreigner's national law. This is the opposite of the rule for family status and capacity, where a Filipino carries national law abroad. For crimes, the organizing idea is place, not person: the State that owns the ground defines and punishes the offenses committed on it. So 'I am not a citizen' is not a defense to a Philippine crime committed in the Philippines.
The two carve-outs the article names
Article 14 is not absolute; it yields in two situations. The first is the principles of public international law. Certain persons, notably accredited diplomats and, in defined ways, visiting heads of state, enjoy immunity from local criminal process under long-settled international rules, so the penal law does not reach them in the usual way. The second is treaty stipulations: agreements the Philippines has entered can modify how its criminal law applies, for example to visiting foreign forces. These are genuine exceptions, but narrow ones. The ordinary foreign visitor or resident falls under none of them and remains fully subject to the law.
What this means for a foreigner here
The practical upshot is straightforward. If you are a foreign national in the Philippines, you are expected to follow its criminal laws, you can be arrested, charged and tried in its courts, and you are entitled to the same protections an accused citizen has. Being unfamiliar with a local prohibition is not, by itself, an excuse. Diplomatic status or a specific treaty may change the picture, but those apply to a small, defined group. For everyone else, the safest assumption is the one Article 14 states: while you live or sojourn here, the country's penal law is obligatory upon you.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Norma A. Del Socorro, for and in behalf of her minor child Roderigo Norjo Van Wilsem vs. Ernst Johan Brinkman Van Wilsem, G.R. No. 193707, December 10, 2014 — read the decision on LawPhil →