Short answer. Three days from receipt of notice. Article 315 provides that a drawer's failure to deposit the amount needed to cover the check within three days of notice from the bank or the payee that it was dishonoured is prima facie evidence of deceit. A presumption, however, can still be answered.
What the law says
By postdating a check, or issuing a check in payment of an obligation when the offender had no funds in the bank, or his funds deposited therein were not sufficient to cover the amount of the check.
Revised Penal Code, Article 315 — Swindling (Estafa). Read the full provision →
The conduct the article describes
The limb in question covers estafa committed by postdating a check, or issuing a check in payment of an obligation when the offender had no funds in the bank, or his funds deposited therein were not sufficient to cover the amount of the check. It appears in the article's list of false pretences or fraudulent acts, and the list carries an important qualifier at its head: the act must have been executed prior to or simultaneously with the fraud. A check given for a debt that already existed is therefore not automatically within this limb.
What the three days actually do
The article gives the drawer three days from receipt of notice that the check was dishonoured for lack or insufficiency of funds to deposit what is needed to cover it. Failure to do so is made prima facie evidence of the deceit. Note the exact effect: it shifts the practical burden, it does not decide the case. Prima facie evidence is evidence that stands unless it is answered, and a drawer who can explain the failure — who never received the notice, or who covered the amount another way — is not foreclosed from doing so.
Everything turns on the notice
Because the period runs from receipt, the notice is the pivot of any case built on this presumption. The article contemplates notice from the bank and from the payee or holder. For a holder, that means sending it in a form that proves both dispatch and receipt, and keeping that proof — a notice nobody can show was received does not start the clock. For a drawer, it means that three days is a very short window and the letter should not be set aside to deal with later.
One check, possibly more than one exposure
This provision is not the only law on bad checks. Separate legislation deals with the issuance of a check that is later dishonoured, on its own terms and with its own requirements, and a single incident can raise questions under both. The peso brackets in Article 315 that determine the penalty were revised by later legislation, so nothing about the applicable penalty should be read off an old copy. Whichever side of this you are on, take the check, the return slip and the notice to a lawyer promptly.