Short answer. No. Article 209 of the Revised Penal Code treats inexcusable negligence or ignorance that prejudices a client as a crime, and it says so in addition to administrative action. The threshold is high, though: an honest error of judgment is not enough.
What the law says
by any malicious breach of professional duty or of inexcusable negligence or ignorance, shall prejudice his client
Revised Penal Code, Article 209 — Betrayal Of Trust By A Lawyer. Read the full provision →
What the law says
In addition to the proper administrative action
Revised Penal Code, Article 209 — Betrayal Of Trust By A Lawyer. Read the full provision →
The Code says 'in addition to', not 'instead of'
Article 209 opens with the words In addition to the proper administrative action. That is the direct answer to your question. The drafters knew that a lawyer who fails his client will face the disciplinary machinery, and they still attached a criminal penalty on top of it. So the two do not compete. A disciplinary complaint can suspend or disbar; only the criminal case can convict; and neither of them, by itself, puts money back in your pocket. There is a third track as well — a civil claim for the loss the neglect actually caused you. Each has its own forum, its own standard of proof and its own time limits, and none of them is a substitute for the others.
Where the criminal threshold sits
The article punishes a lawyer who by any malicious breach of professional duty or of inexcusable negligence or ignorance, shall prejudice his client. The word that decides most cases is inexcusable. Lawyers lose cases. A strategy that looked sound and did not work, a judgment call that a better lawyer would have made differently, an argument that failed — none of that is criminal, and the article was never meant to let a disappointed client re-fight a decided case in a prosecutor's office. What the provision aims at is neglect for which there is no excuse at all: the pleading never filed, the hearing never attended, the appeal period allowed to lapse in silence, the client never told.
You must also show prejudice
The neglect alone does not complete the offence. The lawyer must have prejudiced you — the failure has to have cost you something real. A deadline missed but afterwards cured, or a slip caught before it did any damage, will not do. This is where most complaints stand or fall, and it is why documents matter more than indignation. Get a certified copy of the case record, which shows what was filed and what was not, and when. Keep your engagement papers, receipts, and every message in which you asked for an update. The record of what the lawyer told you while nothing was happening is often the most telling item of all.
The penalty, and moving quickly
The offence carries prisión correccional in its minimum period, or a fine of forty thousand to two hundred thousand pesos, or both. Those amounts come from Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the fines throughout the Revised Penal Code; older reproductions still print the much smaller 1930 figures, so check which version any source you rely on is giving you. Two practical points. First, if the case is not yet final, the urgent work is on the case itself — some losses can still be repaired, and new counsel should look at that before anything else. Second, no one can promise you a conviction, a disbarment or a recovery; what you can control is how fast and how completely you gather the record.