Text of the provision
Art. 221. Failure to make delivery of public funds or property. - Any public officer under obligation to make payment from Government funds in his possession, who shall fail to make such payment, shall be punished by arresto mayor and a fine from five
(5) to twenty-five (25) percent of the sum which he failed to pay. This provision shall apply to any public officer who, being ordered by competent authority to deliver any property in his custody or under his administration, shall refuse to make a delivery. The fine shall be graduated in such case by the value of the thing: Provided, That it shall not be leas than Ten thousand pesos (₱10,000).
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 bound to pay out Government funds in his possession who fails to do so is punished by arresto mayor and a fine of from five (5) to twenty-five (25) percent of the sum he failed to pay. The same applies to an officer who refuses to deliver property in his custody when ordered by competent authority; there the fine is graduated by the value of the thing, but not less than Ten thousand pesos (₱10,000).
Related provisions
- Article 219 — Leaving Country Without Clearance.
- Article 224 — Evasion Through Negligence.
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.