Chapter 8 : ARSON AND OTHER CRIMES INVOLVING DESTRUCTION

ART. 320. Destructive arson.—The penalty of reclusion temporal in its maximum period to reclusion
perpetua shall be imposed upon any person who shall burn:

1. Any arsenal, shipyard, storehouse or military powder or fireworks factory, ordnance storehouse,
archives or general museum of the Government.

2. Any passenger train or motor vehicle in motion or vessel out of port.

3. In an inhabited place, any storehouse or factory of inflammable or explosive materials.

4. Any theater, church, cockpit, or other building where meetings are held, when occupied by a
numerous assemblage.

ART. 321. Other forms of arson.—When the arson consists in the burning of other property and under
the circumstances given hereunder, the offender shall be punished:

1. By reclusion temporal to reclusion perpetua, if the offender shall set fire to any building, farm-house,
warehouse, hut, shelter, or vessel in port, knowing it to be occupied at the time by one or more persons.

2. By reclusion temporal:

a. If the building burned is a public building and the value of the damage caused exceeds 6,000 pesos;

b. If an inhabited house or any other building in which people are accustomed to meet is set on fire, and
the culprit did not know that such house or building was occupied at the time, or if he shall set fire to a
moving freight train or motor vehicle, and the value of the damage caused exceeds 6,000 pesos.

3. By prision mayor:

a. If the value of the damage caused in the cases mentioned in the next preceding subdivision does not
exceed 6,000 pesos.

b. If a building not used as a dwelling or place of assembly, located in a populated place, is set on fire,
and the damage caused exceeds 6,000 pesos;

c. If a farm, sugar mill, cane mill, central, mill, bamboo groves or any similar plantation is set on fire, and
the damage caused exceeds 6,000 pesos.

4. By prision correccional in its maximum period to prision mayor in its medium period, when the
damage caused exceeds 6,000 pesos and the following are set on fire:

a. A building used as a dwelling located in an uninhabited place; or

b. Grain fields, pasture lands, forests, or plantings.

5. By prision correccional in its medium period to prision mayor in its minimum period, when the
damage caused is over 200 pesos but does not exceed 1,000 pesos, and any of the property referred to
in paragraphs (a) and (b) of the next preceding subdivision is set on fire; but when the value of such
property does not exceed 200 pesos, the penalty next lower in degree than that prescribed in this
subdivision shall be imposed when the property burned is a building used as a dwelling in an
uninhabited place, and the penalty of arresto menor and a fine ranging from fifty to one hundred per
centum of the damage caused shall be imposed, when the property burned consist of grain fields,
pasture lands, forests or plantations.

6. The penalty of prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods, if the damage caused in the
cases mentioned in paragraphs (b) and (c) of subdivision 3 of this article does not exceed 6,000 pesos
but is over 200.

7. The penalty of prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods, if the damage caused in the
cases mentioned in paragraphs (b) and (c) of subdivision 3 of this article does not exceed 200 pesos.

ART. 322. Cases of arson not included in the preceding articles.—Cases of arson not included in the next
preceding articles shall be punished:

1. By arresto mayor in its medium and maximum periods, when the damage caused does not exceed 50
pesos;

2. By arresto mayor in its maximum period to prision correccional in its minimum period, when the
damage caused is over 50 pesos but does not exceed 200;

3. By prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods, if the damage caused is over 200 pesos
but does not exceed 1,000; and

4. By prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods, if it is over 1,000 pesos.

ART. 323. Arson of property of small value.—The arson of any uninhabited hut, storehouse, barn, shed,
or any other property the value of which does not exceed 25 pesos, committed at a time or under
circumstances which clearly v exclude all danger of the fire spreading, shall not be punished by the
penalties respectively prescribed in this chapter, but in accordance with the damage caused and under
the provisions of the following chapter.

ART. 324. Crimes involving destruction.—Any person who shall cause destruction by means of explosion,
discharge of electric current, inundation, sinking or stranding of a vessel, intentional damaging of the
engine of said vessel, taking up the rails from a railway track, maliciously changing railway signals for the
safety of moving trains, destroying telegraph wires and telegraph posts, or those of any other system,
and, in general, by using any other agency or means of destruction as effective as those above
enumerated, shall be punished by reclusion temporal if the commission has endangered the safety of
any person; otherwise, the penalty of prision mayor shall be imposed.

ART. 325. Burning one's own property as a means to commit arson.—Any person guilty of arson or
causing great destruction of property belonging to another shall suffer the penalties prescribed in this
chapter, even though he shall bave set fire to or destroyed his own property for the purpose of
committing the crime.

ART. 326. Setting fire to property exclusively owned by the offender.—If the property burned shall be the
exclusive property of the offender, he shall be punished by arresto mayor in its maximum period to
prision correccional in its minimum period, if the arson shall have been committed for the purpose of
defrauding or causing damage to another, or if, though such purpose be lacking, said damage or
prejudice shall actually have been caused, or if the thing burned shall have been a building in an
inhabited place.

Presidential Decree No. 1613

Section 4. Special Aggravating Circumstances in Arson. —

The penalty in any case of arson shall be imposed in its maximum period:

1. If committed with intent to gain;

2. If committed for the benefit of another;

3. If the offender is motivated by spite or hatred towards the owner or occupant of the property burned;

4. If committed by a syndicate.

The offense is committed by a syndicate if it is planned or carried out by a group of three (3) or more
persons.

Section 6. Prima Facie Evidence of Arson. — (also PD NO 1613)

Any of the following circumstances shall constitute prima facie evidence of arson:

1. If the fire started simultaneously in more than one part of the building or establishment.

2. If substantial amount of flammable substances or materials are stored within the building not
necessary in the business of the offender nor for household use.

3. If gasoline, kerosene, petroleum or other flammable or combustible substances or materials soaked

4. If the building or property is insured for substantially more than its actual value at the time of the
issuance of the policy.

5. If during the lifetime of the corresponding fire insurance policy more than two fires have occurred in
the same or other premises owned or under the control of the offender and/or insured.

6. If shortly before the fire, a substantial portion of the effects insured and stored in a building or
property had been withdrawn from the premises except in the ordinary course of business.

7. If a demand for money or other valuable consideration was made before the fire in exchange for the
desistance of the offender or for the safety of the person or property of the victim.