Short answer. Yes. Article 174 punishes any public officer who shall issue a false certificate of merit of service, good conduct or similar circumstances with arresto mayor in its maximum period to prisión correccional in its minimum period, plus a fine — as amended by Republic Act No. 10951 — not exceeding two hundred thousand pesos.
What the law says
Any public officer who shall issue a false certificate of merit of service, good conduct or similar circumstances.
Revised Penal Code, Article 174 — False Certificates. Read the full provision →
The penalty that applies to a false certificate
Article 174 sets a single penalty bracket for the offenses it covers: the penalties of arresto mayor in its maximum period to prisión correccional in its minimum period and a fine not to exceed Two hundred thousand pesos (₱200,000) shall be imposed on the persons the article then names. This is the penalty a public officer faces for the conduct your question describes, and it applies regardless of the official's rank or the specific office that officer holds.
Public officers are named specifically
The article lists exactly the situation you are asking about among those it punishes: any public officer who shall issue a false certificate of merit of service, good conduct or similar circumstances. A government official who issues a fake certificate of good conduct or merit falls directly within this description and faces the arresto mayor to prisión correccional penalty described above, together with the fine.
Physicians face the same article for a different false certificate
Article 174 covers a second category alongside public officers: any physician or surgeon who, in connection with the practice of his profession, shall issue a false certificate. This shows the article is not limited to one profession — it groups false medical certificates together with false certificates of merit, service, or good conduct under the same penalty, since both involve a professional or official using a position of trust to certify something untrue.
A private person faces a lighter penalty
The article also addresses someone outside government or medicine who falsifies one of these certificates: the penalty of arresto mayor shall be imposed upon any private person who shall falsify a certificate falling within the classes mentioned in the two (2) preceding subdivisions. That lighter, arresto-mayor-only penalty applies to a private individual, while the fuller penalty range with the fine — described above — is reserved for the public officer or physician who issues the false certificate in an official or professional capacity. The two-hundred-thousand-peso fine ceiling itself reflects Article 174 as amended by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised fines and thresholds throughout the Revised Penal Code.