Short answer. Not directly. Article 1175 says usurious transactions shall be governed by special laws rather than by the Civil Code itself, so it sets no interest ceiling on its own. Whether a rate is currently capped, and by how much, depends on those special laws, not on this article, though courts retain power to strike down interest that is unconscionable.
What the law says
Usurious transactions shall be governed by special laws.
Civil Code, Article 1175 — Usury. Read the full provision →
The Civil Code hands the question off entirely
Article 1175 is a single, deliberately short sentence: usurious transactions shall be governed by special laws. It does not itself define what counts as usurious, does not name a ceiling, and does not tell you what the current rate limit is, if any. Instead it points you toward a separate body of law outside the Civil Code — the special laws and regulations that actually set interest limits, where they exist. Anyone trying to answer whether a specific rate is legal has to look at that separate framework, not at this article, which only establishes that the Civil Code itself defers the question.
Freedom to stipulate interest, with a limit on abuse
Outside of any fixed ceiling, Philippine contract law generally lets borrower and lender agree on the interest rate that will apply, and that agreement is enforced as written in most cases. That freedom is not unlimited, though: interest that is unconscionable or shocking to the conscience — grossly excessive relative to what is reasonable between the parties — can be struck down or reduced by a court even where no specific statute fixes a rate. That check exists independently of any usury ceiling and applies whether or not a hard cap is currently in force.
What this means if you think a rate is too high
Because the answer depends on special laws this article does not name, and on how a court would assess unconscionability on your particular facts, there is no single number you can point to as automatically illegal. What you can rely on is that agreeing to an interest rate does not put it beyond challenge — excessively high interest is not automatically enforceable just because you signed the loan document. Evaluating whether a specific rate crosses that line requires looking at the actual terms, not a general rule this short article does not provide.
The rule that defeats more interest claims than usury does
Before reaching for a ceiling, it is worth checking whether interest was validly stipulated at all. Article 1956 of the same Code provides that no interest shall be due unless it has been expressly stipulated in writing, and that requirement disposes of far more disputes than any usury argument does. A rate agreed verbally, or recorded nowhere but in the lender's own ledger, is not interest the borrower owes. Article 1175 also does not reach everything a lender adds to the bill: service charges, penalties and collection fees are separate stipulations, and labelling something a charge rather than interest does not by itself put it beyond scrutiny. So a loan document raises two distinct questions — whether interest was stipulated in writing at all, and whether the rate stipulated is one a court would enforce.