Short answer. Grave scandal is the crime of offending decency or good customs by highly scandalous conduct that does not fall under any other article of the Revised Penal Code. Under Article 200 it is punished by arresto mayor and public censure, and it applies only to conduct done publicly or with public effect.
What the law says
The penalties of arresto mayor and public censure shall be imposed upon any person who shall offend against decency or good customs by any highly scandalous conduct not expressly falling within any other article of this Code.
Revised Penal Code, Article 200 — Grave Scandal. Read the full provision →
What grave scandal punishes
Article 200 defines a broadly worded offence. It provides that The penalties of arresto mayor and public censure shall be imposed upon any person who shall offend against decency or good customs by any highly scandalous conduct not expressly falling within any other article of this Code. Three ideas are essential. The conduct must offend decency or good customs — it must run contrary to accepted standards of morality and propriety. It must be highly scandalous, not merely improper or in poor taste. And it must not already be punished by some other provision of the Code. Grave scandal is meant to catch seriously offensive behaviour that the law has not specifically named elsewhere.
It must be public
Although the word public does not appear in the article's short text, grave scandal is understood as an offence against public decency, so the scandalous conduct must be committed in a public place or within public view or knowledge — it must offend the community, not just one private individual. Acts done in genuine privacy, unseen by others, do not amount to grave scandal, however immoral they might be, because there is no public scandal to punish. The harm the article targets is the affront to society's sense of decency caused by conduct exposed to the public. That public dimension is what separates a criminal grave scandal from private behaviour the criminal law leaves alone.
The penalty
The punishment is comparatively light. The article imposes arresto mayor — a short term of imprisonment — together with public censure, which is a formal, public reproach imposed by the court as a penalty in its own right. Grave scandal is therefore a less serious felony, reflecting that it protects public morals rather than punishing violence or dishonesty. The modest penalty, however, does not make the conviction trivial: it is still a criminal record for an offence against decency. Because the penalty is fixed by the article and does not depend on any monetary value, it is not affected by the later law that revised peso figures elsewhere in the Code.
A catch-all with real limits
The provision is deliberately a residual or catch-all offence, which is both its use and its limit. Because it applies only to conduct not expressly falling within any other article of this Code, it cannot be used where a specific crime already fits — if the act is, say, a distinct offence against chastity or public order, that specific provision governs instead, and grave scandal does not apply on top. Its open-ended language also means whether particular conduct is highly scandalous is a fact-sensitive judgment, measured against community standards rather than a fixed checklist. What the article does not do is criminalise mere private immorality or unpopular but decent behaviour. Anyone facing such a charge should have the specific facts assessed by counsel.