Law on Arson

• Section 1. Arson. Any person who burns or sets fire to the property of another shall be punished by Prision Mayor.

  The same penalty shall be imposed when a person sets fire to his own property under circumstances which expose to danger the life or property of another.
• Properties where the maximum penalty applies

  • Any ammunition factory and other establishment where explosives, inflammable or combustible materials are stored
  • Any archive, museum, whether public or private, or any edifice devoted to culture, education or social services
  • Any church or place of worship or other building where people usually assemble
  • Any train, airplane or any aircraft, vessel or watercraft, or conveyance for transportation of persons or property
  • Any building where evidence is kept for use in any legislative, judicial, administrative or other official proceedings
  • Any hospital, hotel, dormitory, lodging house, housing tenement, shopping center, public or private market, theater or movie house or any similar place or building
  • Any building, whether used as a dwelling or not, situated in a populated or congested area
• Section 3. Other Cases of Arson. The penalty of Reclusion Temporal to Reclusion Perpetua shall be imposed if the property burned is any of the following:

  1. Any building used as offices of the government or any of its agencies;

  2. Any inhabited house or dwelling;

  3. Any industrial establishment, shipyard, oil well or mine shaft, platform or tunnel;

  5. Any plantation, farm, pastureland, growing crop, grain field, orchard, bamboo grove or forest;

  6. Any rice mill, sugar mill, cane mill or mill central; and

  7. Any railway or bus station, airport, wharf or warehouse.
• 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 its is planned or carried out by a group of three (3) or more persons.
• Prima Facie evidence of Arson

  • If the fire started simultaneously in more than one part of the building or establishment
  • 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
  • If gasoline, kerosene, petroleum or other flammable or combustible substances or materials soaked therewith or containers thereof, or any mechanical, electrical, chemical, or electronic contrivance designed to start a fire, or ashes or traces of any of the foregoing are found in the ruins or premises of the burned building or property
  • If the building or property is insured for substantially more than its actual value at the time of the issuance of the policy
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
• Section 7. Conspiracy to commit Arson. Conspiracy to commit arson shall be punished by Prision Mayor in its minimum period.