Short answer. Yes. Article 155 of the Revised Penal Code makes it the offence of alarms and scandals to discharge a firearm, rocket, firecracker or other explosive within any town or public place where it is calculated to cause alarm or danger. The date on the calendar changes nothing.
What the law says
Any person who within any town or public place, shall discharge any firearm, rocket, firecracker, or other explosives calculated to cause alarm or danger
Revised Penal Code, Article 155 — Alarms And Scandals. Read the full provision →
What the law says
any person who shall cause any serious disturbance in a public place, office, or establishment
Revised Penal Code, Article 153 — Tumults And Public Disturbances. Read the full provision →
What Article 155 actually punishes
The first paragraph reaches Any person who within any town or public place, shall discharge any firearm, rocket, firecracker, or other explosives calculated to cause alarm or danger. Three things carry the weight. The act must happen within a town or a public place — this is an offence against public order, not against a particular victim. The thing set off must be a firearm or an explosive, which is why an oversized firecracker is treated the same as a pistol. And it must be calculated to cause alarm or danger. Nobody has to be frightened in fact, and no one has to be hurt; the character of the act is enough. Aiming into the sky rather than at a person is therefore not a defence — it is the ordinary way the offence is committed.
The penalty, and the peso figure that is current
Article 155 carries arresto menor or a fine not exceeding Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000). That figure is the one set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which rewrote the fines and property values throughout the Revised Penal Code. Older reproductions still print the 1930 amounts and are badly out of date, so check which version any book or website you are reading actually gives. Arresto menor is a short custodial penalty, and the court may impose the fine instead. Being a light penalty does not make the record cosmetic: it is still a criminal conviction, and it is still an arrest on the night, with the firearm and the person taken in.
When it becomes something much worse
The article ends with a caution: it applies only Provided, That the circumstances of the case shall not make the provisions of Article 153 applicable. Article 153 covers any person who shall cause any serious disturbance in a public place, office, or establishment, and it carries a far heavier penalty, higher again where the disturbance is tumultuous. So the same volley can be charged more seriously depending on scale and setting. More important still is what the bullet does. Stray rounds come down. If someone is injured or killed, the case is no longer about public order at all — it becomes a case about that person, and the exposure is of a wholly different order, including liability for reckless imprudence under Article 365.
Firecrackers, ordinances and civil liability
Separate legislation regulates the manufacture, sale and use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics, and many cities and municipalities go further with ordinances that confine fireworks to designated community displays. Those ordinances bind you independently of the Code, so a display that draws no criminal charge can still draw a local penalty. Licensed gun owners should also understand that the firearms statute governs how a registered firearm may be carried and used, and misuse can put the licence itself at risk. Finally, a criminal case does not settle the damage. Anyone whose roof, vehicle or body is struck can sue for the loss regardless of what happens to the charge. If you have been charged or hurt, get advice early — evidence at these scenes disappears within hours.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 155 — Alarms And Scandals
- Revised Penal Code, Article 153 — Tumults And Public Disturbances
- Revised Penal Code, Article 365 — Imprudence And Negligence