Short answer. Yes. The Revised Penal Code punishes anyone who, within a town or public place, discharges a firearm, rocket, firecracker or other explosive calculated to cause alarm or danger. Nobody has to be hit, and the festive occasion is not a defence.
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 →
No injury is required
This is what makes the New Year shot so risky. The offence is complete on the discharge itself, provided it happened within a town or public place and the thing fired was calculated to cause alarm or danger. There is no need for anyone to be wounded, for property to be hit, or even for a bystander to complain. The law is protecting public tranquillity, not compensating a victim. That is why the familiar defences — "I aimed straight up", "it was only celebratory", "the barangay does it every year" — miss the point. So does the belief that a licensed firearm makes the discharge lawful; a licence permits possession, not random firing in a populated place.
The article covers more than gunfire
Three other situations sit in the same provision, and they catch far more people than firearms do. It punishes anyone who instigates or takes an active part in a charivari or other disorderly meeting offensive to another or prejudicial to public tranquillity. It punishes a person who, while wandering about at night or engaged in nocturnal amusements, disturbs the public peace. And it punishes anyone who, whether intoxicated or not, causes a disturbance or scandal in a public place. Note the last one carefully: drunkenness is not an element and not an excuse — the article says while intoxicated or otherwise.
The penalty, and the 2017 amendment
The penalty is arresto menor or a fine not exceeding ₱40,000. That ₱40,000 figure is the current one, set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the peso amounts and fines throughout the Revised Penal Code. Many reference copies still in circulation print the 1930 figure of ₱200 for this article; if a source shows you that, it is out of date. The article also carries a proviso: it applies only where the circumstances do not bring the case under the Code's separate provision on tumults and other serious disturbances of public order, which carries a heavier penalty.
Where the real exposure lies
Treating this as a minor fine badly understates the risk. A stray bullet that comes down and injures or kills someone converts a light offence into physical injuries or homicide, with penalties in an entirely different range, and celebratory gunfire causes exactly those casualties every year. Separate legislation on firearms and ammunition governs licensing and the unlawful discharge of firearms, and administrative consequences for a licence holder — suspension or revocation, forfeiture of the weapon — can follow independently of any criminal case. Anyone who has been invited for questioning after an incident should not give a statement before speaking with counsel; this page is general legal information only.