Short answer. Yes. Revised Penal Code Article 309, as amended by RA 10951, caps the penalty for theft at twenty years even for extremely valuable stolen property. Above the highest value bracket, the penalty rises by one year for each additional amount stolen, but the total may never exceed that twenty-year ceiling.
What the law says
but the total of the penalty which may be imposed shall not exceed twenty (20) years
Revised Penal Code, Article 309 — Penalties For Theft. Read the full provision →
How the penalty scales with the amount stolen
Article 309, as amended by Republic Act No. 10951, sets a tiered structure of penalties for theft, moving upward in severity as the value of the stolen property increases. At the lower end, minor thefts are punished with arresto menor or arresto mayor; larger thefts move through prisión correccional and into prisión mayor. At the top tier, theft of property worth more than the highest bracket carries the maximum period of that bracket's penalty, and the law then adds time incrementally for further value beyond that threshold.
The twenty-year ceiling
That incremental increase does not run without limit. The article adds one additional year of imprisonment for each further increment of stolen value beyond the top bracket, but the total of the penalty which may be imposed shall not exceed twenty (20) years. No matter how enormous the value of the property stolen turns out to be, twenty years is the hard outer limit the statute sets for theft under this article. The escalation stops climbing once it reaches that ceiling, however far the value of the stolen property exceeds the threshold that started the additional-year calculation.
What penalty classification the maximum carries
The article also specifies how a sentence at this level is labeled for legal purposes: in such cases, and in connection with the accessory penalties which may be imposed and for the purpose of the other provisions of this Code, the penalty shall be termed prisión mayor or reclusion temporal, as the case may be. That classification matters because accessory penalties and other provisions of the Code that reference these penalty categories key off that label, not simply off the number of years imposed, so the classification carries consequences beyond the length of the prison term itself.
Why the ceiling matters beyond theft itself
The twenty-year cap is not just a number attached to one crime; it reflects a broader legislative judgment that even the most extreme case of pure theft, without more, should not be punished beyond a fixed outer boundary tied to this penalty scale. Other offenses that involve additional aggravating conduct, such as violence or intimidation in taking property, are punished separately and are not bound by this particular ceiling. So this twenty-year limit is specific to theft as defined and penalized under this article, not a general cap that applies across every property crime in the Code.