Text of the provision

Art. 216. Possession of prohibited interest by a public officer. - The penalty of arresto mayor in its medium period to prisión correccional in its minimum period, or a fine ranging from Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000) to Two hundred thousand pesos (₱200,000), or both, shall be imposed upon a public officer who directly or indirectly, shall become interested in any contract or business in which it is his official duty to intervene. This provision is applicable to experts, arbitrators and private accountants who, in like manner, shall take part in any contract or transaction connected with the estate or property in appraisal, distribution or adjudication of which they shall have acted, and to guardians and executors with respect to the property belonging to their wards or estate.

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 public officer who, directly or indirectly, becomes interested in a contract or business he must officially intervene in, suffers arresto mayor in its medium period to prisión correccional in its minimum period, or a fine of Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000) to Two hundred thousand pesos (₱200,000), or both. It applies equally to experts, arbitrators and private accountants in property they appraised or helped distribute, and to guardians and executors as to their wards’ or the estate’s property.

Questions about this provision

Related provisions

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

Note. The text of the provision above is reproduced in full from the official enactment (Act No. 3815), verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings. The Revised Penal Code has been amended many times; this page reproduces the text as those sources carry it. The annotation and commentary around it are the work of Vivas & Nobles Law Office and are general legal information, not legal advice. How a provision applies to a particular situation depends on facts that only a lawyer reviewing your case can assess.