Text of the provision
Art. 166. Forging treasury or bank notes or other documents payable to bearer; Importing, and uttering such false or forged notes and documents - The forging or falsification of treasury or bank notes or certificates or other obligations and securities payable to bearer and the importation and uttering in connivance with forgers or importers of such false or forced obligation or notes shall be punished as follows: 1. By reclusion temporal in its minimum period and a fine not to exceed two million pesos (₱2,000,000), if the document which has been falsified, counterfeited, or altered is an obligation or security of the Philippines. The words ‘obligation or security of the Philippines’ shall mean all bonds, certificates of indebtedness, national bank notes, coupons, Philippine notes, treasury notes, fractional notes, certificates of deposit, bills, checks, or drafts for money, drawn by or upon authorized officers of the Philippines, and other representatives of value, of whatever denomination, which have been or may be issued under any act of Congress. 2. By prisión mayor in its maximum period and a fine not to exceed one million pesos (₱1,000,000), if the falsified or altered documents is a circulating note issued by any banking association duly authorized by law to issue the same. 3. By arresto mayor in its medium period and a fine not to exceed one million pesos (₱1,000,000), if the falsified or counterfeited document was issued by a foreign government. 4. By prisión mayor in its minimum period and a fine not to exceed Four hundred thousand pesos (₱400,000), when the forged or altered document is a circulating note or bill issued by a foreign bank duly authorized therefor.
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
Forging or falsifying treasury or bank notes, certificates and other obligations payable to bearer — and importing or uttering them in connivance with forgers — carries: reclusión temporal in its minimum period and a fine not to exceed two million pesos (₱2,000,000) for an obligation or security of the Philippines, a term defined broadly to cover bonds, national bank notes, Philippine and treasury notes, certificates of deposit, bills, checks and drafts drawn by or upon authorized officers; prisión mayor in its maximum period and a fine not to exceed one million pesos (₱1,000,000) for a circulating note of a duly authorized banking association; arresto mayor in its medium period and a fine not to exceed one million pesos (₱1,000,000) for a document issued by a foreign government; and prisión mayor in its minimum period and a fine not to exceed Four hundred thousand pesos (₱400,000) for a circulating note or bill of a foreign bank.
Related provisions
- Article 164 — Mutilation Of Coins.
- Article 167 — Forging Instruments Payable To Order.
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.