Short answer. Yes. Article 331 defines its own specific offense and penalty for destroying or damaging statues, public monuments, or public paintings, rather than leaving that conduct to be punished only under the general malicious mischief provisions. Note that its fine figure was updated by Republic Act No. 10951 in 2017.
What the law says
Any person who shall destroy or damage statues or any other useful or ornamental public monument, shall suffer the penalty of arresto mayor in its medium period to prisión correccional in its minimum period.
Revised Penal Code, Article 331 — Damaging Monuments And Paintings. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Any person who shall destroy or damage any useful or ornamental painting of a public nature shall suffer the penalty of arresto menor or a fine not exceeding Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000), or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.
Revised Penal Code, Article 331 — Damaging Monuments And Paintings. Read the full provision →
A dedicated article with its own defined penalty
Article 331 is written as a specific, standalone offense for this exact kind of property. Any person who shall destroy or damage statues or any other useful or ornamental public monument, shall suffer the penalty of arresto mayor in its medium period to prisión correccional in its minimum period. Rather than folding this conduct into a general damage-to-property penalty scale, the Code sets a specific penalty range tailored to statues and public monuments, which is what makes this its own defined crime rather than simply an instance of a broader offense.
Public paintings get their own, separate treatment
The article does not stop at statues and monuments — it separately addresses damage to public artwork. Any person who shall destroy or damage any useful or ornamental painting of a public nature shall suffer the penalty of arresto menor or a fine not exceeding Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000), or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court. This is a distinctly lighter penalty than the one for statues and monuments, showing the article draws its own internal distinctions rather than treating all public art and monuments identically.
The fine figure reflects a 2017 update
The Forty thousand peso figure in the painting provision is not the original 1930 amount — it reflects Republic Act No. 10951, enacted in 2017, which revised property values and fine amounts throughout the Revised Penal Code. Anyone relying on an older printing of the Code for this article risks seeing an outdated, much smaller figure that no longer represents the current maximum fine.
Why the distinction matters practically
Because Article 331 supplies its own penalty structure, a prosecution for damaging a public statue or monument does not depend on proving the general elements or penalty brackets used elsewhere for malicious mischief generally — the specific provision governs conduct that falls within its terms. Whether particular damaged property counts as a statue, monument, or public painting under this article, rather than some other kind of property, is the threshold question that determines which penalty structure actually applies.