Short answer. Yes. Section 31 of RA 7610 provides that the penalty is imposed in its maximum period if the offender has been previously convicted under the same Act. A repeat offender is punished in the harshest range of the penalty set for the offence being tried.
What the law says
The penalty provided under this Act shall be imposed in its maximum period if the offender has been previously convicted under this Act
RA 7610, Section 31 — Common Penal Provisions. Read the full provision →
The rule on prior convictions
The common penal provisions open with this: The penalty provided under this Act shall be imposed in its maximum period if the offender has been previously convicted under this Act. The message is direct. Someone who has already been convicted under RA 7610 and offends again faces the top of the penalty range for the new offence. The earlier conviction is treated as an aggravating fact that removes the leniency of the lower and medium periods.
What kind of prior conviction counts
The words tie the aggravation to a previous conviction under this Act — that is, under RA 7610 itself. It is the fact of having been convicted before under the same law that triggers the maximum period. The provision sits among several others in the same section that also call for the maximum period, such as where the offender is a parent or close relative, a public officer, or the responsible officer of a corporation. Each is a separate route to the harshest range.
The boundaries of the provision
This clause sharpens the sentence; it does not invent a new offence, and it presupposes a valid earlier conviction under the Act. It also does not, on its own, address unrelated convictions under different statutes. Beyond imprisonment, the section adds a court-determined fine that becomes a rehabilitation fund for the child victim, and other consequences for foreign or public-officer offenders. Anyone dealing with a repeat case — whether reporting it or facing it — should get advice on how the prior conviction will be proved and applied, since it can decisively raise the penalty.
What will and will not count
It is worth being precise about what triggers the clause. The aggravation rests on a prior conviction under RA 7610 itself, so a previous conviction under a different statute — even one that also protects children — does not, through this particular clause, push the new sentence to its maximum period. The earlier conviction must be a real, standing one that the prosecution can prove, not a mere pending charge or an accusation that never ripened into judgment. And like the other circumstances in the same section, it raises the period of the penalty for the offence being tried; it does not add a fresh, separate term for the old case, which was already dealt with when that conviction was handed down.