Short answer. Prisión mayor and a fine of up to two hundred thousand pesos if serious damage results, and a lighter penalty otherwise, plus disqualification. Article 226 punishes a public officer who removes, destroys, or conceals documents officially entrusted to him. The peso amounts of the fines come from Republic Act No. 10951.
What the law says
Any public officer who shall remove, destroy or conceal documents or papers officially entrusted to him
Revised Penal Code, Article 226 — Removing Or Destroying Official Documents. Read the full provision →
The offense
Public officers are custodians of many of the records on which government and private rights depend, and Article 226 punishes them for betraying that custody. It reaches any public officer who shall remove, destroy or conceal documents or papers officially entrusted to him. The wrong may be committed in three ways: physically removing the documents, destroying them, or concealing them. What matters is that the papers were officially entrusted to the officer, so that his removal, destruction, or concealment is an abuse of the responsibility his office placed on him to keep and account for them.
A penalty graduated by the damage caused
The severity of the punishment turns on the harm done. Where serious damage is caused to a third party or to the public interest, the penalty is prisión mayor and a fine that may reach two hundred thousand pesos. Where the damage is not serious, the penalty is prisión correccional in its minimum and medium periods with a fine up to the same ceiling. The peso amounts reflect the revision made by Republic Act No. 10951 in 2017, so the current figures come from that law. The graduated scheme ties the punishment to the consequences of the officer's act.
Disqualification is also imposed
Beyond imprisonment and a fine, the article adds a disqualification. In either case, whether the damage was serious or not, the officer suffers the additional penalty of temporary special disqualification in its maximum period to perpetual disqualification. This strips or bars the offender from public office and related rights, reflecting that the crime is a breach of official duty. An officer who tampers with the records entrusted to him is thus removed from the very position that gave him access, on top of the prison term and fine.
Why official records are protected
Official documents fix rights, record transactions, and preserve the memory of government action. If a custodian could remove, destroy, or conceal them without consequence, property, entitlements, and accountability itself would be at the mercy of whoever held the files. Article 226 protects the integrity and availability of public records by making their removal, destruction, or concealment by the responsible officer a crime, punished more heavily as the resulting damage grows, and always accompanied by disqualification from the office that was abused.