Text of the provision
Art. 150. Disobedience to summons issued by Congress, its committees or subcommittees, by the Constitutional Commissions, its committees, subcommittees or divisions - The penalty of arresto mayor or a fine ranging from Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000) to Two hundred thousand pesos (₱200,000), or both such fine and imprisonment, shall be imposed upon any person who, having been duly summoned to attend as a witness before Congress, its special or standing committees and subcommittees, the Constitutional Commissions and its committees, subcommittees, or divisions, or before any commission or committee chairman or member authorized to summon witnesses, refuses, without legal excuse to obey such summons, or being present before any such legislative or constitutional body or official, refuses to be sworn or placed under affirmation or to answer any legal inquiry or to produce any books, papers, documents, or records in his possession, when required by them to do so in the exercise of their functions. The same penalty shall be imposed upon any person who shall induce disobedience to summons or refusal to be sworn by any such body or official.
Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, Act No. 3815, as amended. Reproduced in full from the official enactment and verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings.
What this article means
A person duly summoned as a witness before Congress, its committees or subcommittees, or the Constitutional Commissions and their committees or divisions who refuses without legal excuse to appear, to be sworn, to answer any legal inquiry, or to produce books, papers, documents or records, suffers arresto mayor or a fine of Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000) to Two hundred thousand pesos (₱200,000), or both. The same penalty falls on anyone who induces such disobedience or refusal.
Related provisions
- Article 149 — Indirect Assaults.
- Article 151 — Resistance And Disobedience To Authority.
Penalty amounts. The text above is the article as amended by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the property values and fines throughout this Code. Older reproductions of the Revised Penal Code still print the 1930 amounts — for theft and estafa they show 12,000 and 22,000 pesos where the current figures run to millions. Check which version any source you rely on is giving you.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.