Text of the provision
Art. 331. Destroying or damaging statues, public monuments or paintings. - Any person who shall destroy or damage statues or any other useful or ornamental public monument, shall suffer the penalty of arresto mayor in its medium period to prisión correccional in its minimum period. Any person who shall destroy or damage any useful or ornamental painting of a public nature shall suffer the penalty of arresto menor or a fine not exceeding Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000), or both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.
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
Destroying or damaging statues or any other useful or ornamental public monument is punished by arresto mayor in its medium period to prisión correccional in its minimum period. Damaging a useful or ornamental painting of a public nature draws arresto menor or a fine not exceeding Forty thousand pesos (₱40,000), or both, at the court’s discretion.
Questions about this provision
Related provisions
- Article 329 — Other Mischiefs.
- Article 338 — Simple Seduction.
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.