Short answer. Yes. Under Article 120 of the Revised Penal Code, anyone who, in time of war, has correspondence with an enemy country or with territory occupied by enemy troops can be punished — with heavier penalties if the correspondence was prohibited, was in cipher, or passed information useful to the enemy.
What the law says
Any person, who in time of war, shall have correspondence with an enemy country or territory occupied by enemy troops
Revised Penal Code, Article 120 — Correspondence With Hostile Country. Read the full provision →
What the law says
By prision correccional, if the correspondence has been prohibited by the Government
Revised Penal Code, Article 120 — Correspondence With Hostile Country. Read the full provision →
What the law says
By prision mayor, if such correspondence be carried on in ciphers or conventional signs
Revised Penal Code, Article 120 — Correspondence With Hostile Country. Read the full provision →
What the law says
By reclusion temporal, if notice or information be given thereby which might be useful to the enemy
Revised Penal Code, Article 120 — Correspondence With Hostile Country. Read the full provision →
The crime of correspondence with a hostile country
Article 120 punishes wartime communication with the enemy. It reaches Any person, who in time of war, shall have correspondence with an enemy country or territory occupied by enemy troops. "Correspondence" here means communication — letters or messages — with the enemy side. Two conditions frame the offense: the country must actually be at war, and the communication must be with the enemy country or enemy-occupied territory. The article does not require that the sender be a soldier or official; any person who carries on such correspondence in wartime can fall within it.
The penalty rises with the danger
The article grades the punishment by how dangerous the correspondence is. It is punished By prision correccional, if the correspondence has been prohibited by the Government; more heavily By prision mayor, if such correspondence be carried on in ciphers or conventional signs; and still more By reclusion temporal, if notice or information be given thereby which might be useful to the enemy. The gravest situation is where the sender meant to help the enemy: the article then raises the penalty toward its highest level. Read that top penalty subject to the note below on the death penalty.
The death penalty no longer applies
The article's highest bracket still refers to death, but that part must be read subject to later law. Republic Act No. 9346 (2006) prohibits the imposition of the death penalty in the Philippines. In its place, where the Revised Penal Code's nomenclature is used, the courts impose reclusión perpetua instead. So even where an offender corresponded with the enemy intending to aid it, the death penalty the 1930 text mentions can no longer be imposed. The rest of the article's graduated penalties continue to apply according to the nature of the correspondence.
What the article does and does not require
Two limits are worth noting. First, the offense presupposes an actual state of war; ordinary peacetime contact with another country is not covered. Second, the plain first bracket does not require that any secret be passed — merely carrying on correspondence the Government has prohibited is enough, with the heavier brackets reserved for coded messages or the giving of useful information. This article punishes the correspondence itself and its potential to help the enemy; whether the communication actually reached the enemy or caused harm is a separate matter of proof.