Short answer. Prisión correccional in its medium and maximum periods and a fine of up to one million two hundred thousand pesos. Article 167 punishes forging, importing, or uttering instruments payable to order, such as checks and promissory notes, or other documents of credit not payable to bearer. The fine amount comes from Republic Act No. 10951.
What the law says
Any person who shall forge, import or utter, in connivance with the forgers or importers, any instrument payable to order or other document of credit not payable to bearer, shall suffer the penalties of prisión correccional in its medium and maximum periods and a fine not exceeding one million two hundred thousand pesos (₱1,200,000).
Revised Penal Code, Article 167 — Forging Instruments Payable To Order. Read the full provision →
The offense
Article 167 protects commercial instruments that circulate in the economy. It punishes any person who forges, imports, or utters, in connivance with the forgers or importers, an instrument payable to order or another document of credit not payable to bearer. Checks and promissory notes are the everyday examples of instruments payable to order. The article reaches not only the person who forges such an instrument but also those who import forged ones or who utter them, meaning put them into circulation, acting together with the forgers or importers.
The penalty
The full text sets the punishment: such a person shall suffer the penalties of prisión correccional in its medium and maximum periods and a fine not exceeding one million two hundred thousand pesos (₱1,200,000). The offense therefore combines a term of imprisonment with a substantial fine. The peso ceiling on the fine reflects the amounts set by Republic Act No. 10951, which revised the Code's monetary penalties in 2017, so the current figure derives from that law rather than from the Code as originally enacted.
Order instruments versus bearer instruments
The article specifically concerns instruments payable to order and documents of credit not payable to bearer. An instrument payable to order, like a typical check or promissory note, is one that runs to a named payee and is transferred by indorsement, as opposed to a bearer instrument, which passes by mere delivery. Forgery of the government's own bearer obligations and securities is dealt with by a separate provision carrying heavier penalties. Article 167 covers the large field of private and commercial order instruments and credit documents that make ordinary trade and finance possible.
Why forgery of these instruments is punished
Checks, promissory notes, and similar credit documents work only if people can trust that they are genuine. Forging or circulating counterfeit versions strikes at that trust, allowing swindlers to obtain money or goods on the strength of worthless paper and undermining confidence in commercial dealings generally. By punishing forging, importing, and uttering such instruments, Article 167 protects the reliability of the instruments the economy depends on, and it does so whether the offender created the forgery, brought it in, or knowingly passed it along with those who did.