AN ACT DEFINING AND

PENALIZING ENFORCED OR
INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCE
— Fifteenth Congress, Third Regular
Session
Republic of the Philippines

2012

Exported from Wikisource on July 31, 2024

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S. No. 2817 H. No. 98

Republic of the Philippines Congress of the Philippines

Metro Manila Fifteenth Congress Third Regular Session

Begun and held in Metro Manila, on Monday, the twenty-

third day of July, two thousand twelve.

[REPUBLIC ACT NO. 10353]

AN ACT DEFINING AND PENALIZING ENFORCED

OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCE

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of

the Philippines in Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. –This Act shall be known as the

“Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012″.

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. –The State values the dignity

of every human person and guarantees full respect for
human rights for which highest priority shall be given to the
enactment of measures for the enhancement of the right of
all people to human dignity, the prohibition against secret
detention places, solitary confinement, incommunicado, or
other similar forms of detention, the provision for penal and
civil sanctions for such violations, and compensation and
rehabilitation for the victims and their families, particularly
with respect to the use of torture, force, violence, threat,

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intimidation or any other means which vitiate the free will
of persons abducted, arrested, detained, disappeared or
otherwise removed from the effective protection of the law.

Furthermore, the State adheres to the principles and

standards on the absolute condemnation of human rights
violations set by the 1987 Philippine Constitution and
various international instruments such as, but not limited to,
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(ICCPR), and the Convention Against Torture and Other
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
(CAT), to which the Philippines is a State party.

SEC. 3. Definitions. –For purposes of this Act, the

following terms shall be defined as follows:

(a) Agents of the State refer to persons who, by direct

provision of the law, popular election or appointment by
competent authority, shall take part in the performance of
public functions in the government, or shall perform in the
government or in any of its branches public duties as an
employee, agent or subordinate official, of any rank or
class.

(b) Enforced or involuntary disappearance refers to the

arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation
of liberty committed by agents of the State or by persons or
groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or
acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to

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acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment
of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which
places such person outside the protection of the law.

(c) Order of Battle refers to a document made by the

military, police or any law enforcement agency of the
government, listing the names of persons and organizations
that it perceives to be enemies of the State and which it
considers as legitimate targets as combatants that it could
deal with, through the use of means allowed by domestic
and international law.

(d) Victim refers to the disappeared person and any

individual who has suffered harm as a direct result of an
enforced or involuntary disappearance as defined in letter
(b) of this Section.

SEC. 4. Nonderogability of the Right Against Enforced or

Involuntary Disappearance. –The right against enforced or
involuntary disappearance and the fundamental safeguards
for its prevention shall not be suspended under any
circumstance including political instability, threat of war,
state of war or other public emergencies.

SEC. 5. “Order of Battle” or Any Order of Similar Nature,

Not Legal Ground, for Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearance. – An “Order of Battle” or any order of
similar nature, official or otherwise, from a superior officer
or a public authority causing the commission of enforced or

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involuntary disappearance is unlawful and cannot be
invoked as a justifying or exempting circumstance. Any
person receiving such an order shall have the right to
disobey it.

SEC. 6. Right of Access to Communication. – It shall be the

absolute right of any person deprived of liberty to have
immediate access to any form of communication available
in order for him or her to inform his or her family, relative,
friend, lawyer or any human rights organization on his or
her whereabouts and condition.

SEC. 7. Duty to Report Victims of Enforced or Involuntary

Disappearance. – Any person, not being a principal,
accomplice or accessory, who has an information of a case
of enforced or involuntary disappearance or who shall learn
of such information or that a person is a victim of enforced
or involuntary disappearance, shall immediately report in
writing the circumstances and whereabouts of the victim to
any office, detachment or division of the Department of the
Interior and Local Government (DILG), the Department of
National Defense (DND), the Philippine National Police
(PNP), the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the City or
Provincial Prosecutor, the Commission on Human Rights
(CHR) or any human rights organization and, if known, the
victim’s family, relative, or lawyer.

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SEC. 8. Duty to Certify in Writing on the Results of Inquiry
into a Reported Disappeared Person’s Whereabouts. –In
case a family member, relative, lawyer, representative of a
human rights organization or a member of the media
inquires with a member or official of any police or military
detention center, the PNP or any of its agencies, the AFP or
any of its agencies, the NBI or any other agency or
instrumentality of the government, as well as any hospital
or morgue, public or private, on the presence or
whereabouts of a reported victim of enforced or involuntary
disappearance, such member or official shall immediately
issue a certification in writing to the inquiring person or
entity on the presence or absence and/or information on the
whereabouts of such disappeared person, stating, among
others, in clear and unequivocal manner the date and time
of inquiry, details of the inquiry and the response to the
inquiry.

SEC. 9. Duty of Inquest/Investigating Public Prosecutor or

any Judicial or Quasi-Judicial Official or Employee. –Any
inquest or investigating public prosecutor, or any judicial or
quasi-judicial official or employee who learns that the
person delivered for inquest or preliminary investigation or
for any other judicial process is a victim of enforced or
involuntary disappearance shall have the duty to
immediately disclose the victim’s whereabouts to his or her
immediate family, relatives, lawyer/s or to a human rights
organization by the most expedient means.

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SEC. 10. Official Up-to-Date Register of All Persons
Detained or Confined. - All persons detained or confined
shall be placed solely in officially recognized and
controlled places of detention or confinement where an
official up-to-date register of such persons shall be
maintained. Relatives, lawyers, judges, official bodies and
all persons who have legitimate interest in the whereabouts
and condition of the persons deprived of liberty shall have
free access to the register.

The following details, among others, shall be recorded, in

the register:

(a) The identity or name, description and address of the

person deprived of liberty;

(b) The date, time and location where the person was
deprived of liberty and the identity of the person who made
such deprivation of liberty;

(c) The authority who decided the deprivation of liberty and

the reasons for the deprivation of liberty or the crime or
offense committed;

(d) The authority controlling the deprivation of liberty;

(e) The place of deprivation of liberty, the date and time of

admission to the place of deprivation of liberty and the
authority responsible for the place of deprivation of liberty;

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(f) Records of physical, mental and psychological condition
of the detained or confined person before and after the
deprivation of liberty and the name and address of the
physician who examined him or her physically, mentally
and medically;

(g) The date and time of release or transfer of the detained

or confined person to another place of detention, the
destination and the authority responsible for the transfer;

(h) The date and time of each removal of the detained or

confined person from his or her cell, the reason or purpose
for such removal and the date and time of his or her return
to his or her cell;

(i) A summary of the physical, mental and medical findings

of the detained or confined person after each interrogation;

(j) The names and addresses of the persons who visit the
detained or confined person and the date and time of such
visits and the date and time of each departure;

(k) In the event of death during the deprivation of liberty,

the identity, the circumstances and cause of death of the
victim as well as the destination of the human remains; and

(1) All other important events bearing on and all relevant

details regarding the treatment of the detained or confined
person.

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Provided, That the details required under letters (a) to (f)
shall be entered immediately in the register upon arrest
and/or detention.

All information contained in the register shall be regularly

or upon request reported to the CHR or any other agency of
government tasked to monitor and protect human rights and
shall be made available to the public.

SEC. 11. Submission of List of Government Detention

Facilities. –Within six (6) months from the effectivity of
this Act and as may be requested by the CHR thereafter, all
government agencies concerned shall submit an updated
inventory or list of all officially recognized and controlled
detention or confinement facilities, and the list of detainees
or persons deprived of liberty under their respective
jurisdictions to the CHR.

SEC. 12. Immediate Issuance and Compliance of the Writs

of Habeas Corpus, Amparo and Habeas Data. – All
proceedings pertaining to the issuance of the writs of habeas
corpus, amparo and habeas data shall be dispensed with
expeditiously. As such, all courts and other concerned
agencies of government shall give priority to such
proceedings.

Moreover, any order issued or promulgated pursuant to

such writs or their respective proceedings shall be executed
and complied with immediately.

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SEC. 13. Visitation /Inspection of Places of Detention and,
Confinement. –The CHR or its duly authorized
representatives are hereby mandated and authorized to
conduct regular, independent, unannounced and unrestricted
visits to or inspection of all places of detention and
confinement.

SEC. 14. Liability of Commanding Officer or Superior. -

The immediate commanding officer of the unit concerned
of the AFP or the immediate senior official of the PNP and
other law enforcement agencies shall be held liable as a
principal to the crime of enforced or involuntary
disappearance for acts committed by him or her that shall
have led, assisted, abetted or allowed, whether directly or
indirectly, the commission thereof by his or her
subordinates. If such commanding officer has knowledge of
or, owing to the circumstances at the time, should have
known that an enforced or involuntary disappearance is
being committed, or has been committed by subordinates or
by others within the officer’s area of responsibility and,
despite such knowledge, did not take preventive or coercive
action either before, during or immediately after its
commission, when he or she has the authority to prevent or
investigate allegations of enforced or involuntary
disappearance but failed to prevent or investigate such
allegations, whether deliberately or due to negligence, shall
also be held liable as principal.

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SEC. 15. Penal Provisions. – (a) The penalty of reclusion
perpetua and its accessory penalties shall be imposed upon
the following persons:

(1) Those who directly committed the act of enforced or

involuntary disappearance;

(2) Those who directly forced, instigated, encouraged or

induced others to commit the act of enforced or involuntary
disappearance;

(3) Those who cooperated in the act of enforced or

involuntary disappearance by committing another act
without which the act of enforced or involuntary
disappearance would not have been consummated;

(4) Those officials who allowed the act or abetted in the

consummation of enforced or involuntary disappearance
when it is within their power to stop or uncover the
commission thereof; and

(5) Those who cooperated in the execution of the act of

enforced or involuntary disappearance by previous or
simultaneous acts.

(b) The penalty of reclusion temporal and its accessory

penalties shall be imposed upon those who shall commit the
act of enforced or involuntary disappearance in the
attempted stage as provided for and defined under Article 6
of the Revised Penal Code.
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(c) The penalty of reclusion temporal and its accessory
penalties shall also be imposed upon persons who, having
knowledge of the act of enforced or involuntary
disappearance and without having participated therein,
either as principals or accomplices, took part subsequent to
its commission in any of the following manner:

(1) By themselves profiting from or assisting the offender to

profit from the effects of the act of enforced or involuntary
disappearance;

(2) By concealing the act of enforced or involuntary

disappearance and/or destroying the effects or instruments
thereof in order to prevent its discovery; or

(3) By harboring, concealing or assisting in the escape of

the principal/s in the act of enforced or involuntary
disappearance, provided such accessory acts are done with
the abuse of official functions.

(d) The penalty of prision correctional and its accessory

penalties shall be imposed against persons who defy, ignore
or unduly delay compliance with any order duly issued or
promulgated pursuant to the writs of habeas corpus, amparo
and habeas data or their respective proceedings.

(e) The penalty of arresto mayor and its accessory penalties

shall be imposed against any person who shall violate the
provisions of Sections 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 of this Act.

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SEC. 16. Preventive Suspension/Summary Dismissal. –
Government officials and personnel who are found to be
perpetrators of or participants in any manner in the
commission of enforced or involuntary disappearance as a
result of a preliminary investigation conducted for that
purpose shall be preventively suspended or summarily
dismissed from the service, depending on the strength of the
evidence so presented and gathered in the said preliminary
investigation or as may be recommended by the
investigating authority.

SEC. 17. Civil Liability. –The act of enforced or

involuntary disappearance shall render its perpetrators and
the State agencies which organized, acquiesced in or
tolerated such disappearance liable under civil law.

SEC. 18. Independent Liability. –The criminal liability of

the offender under this Act shall be independent of or
without prejudice to the prosecution and conviction of the
said offender for any violation of Republic Act No. 7438,
otherwise known as “An Act Defining Certain Rights of
Person Arrested, Detained or Under Custodial Investigation
as well as the Duties of the Arresting, Detaining, and
Investigating Officers, and Providing Penalties for
Violations Thereof’; Republic Act No. 9745, otherwise
known as “An Act Penalizing Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and
Prescribing Penalties Therefor”; and applicable provisions
of the Revised Penal Code.

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SEC. 19. Nonexclusivity or Double Jeopardy Under
International Law. – Any investigation, trial and decision in
any Philippines court, or body for any violation of this Act
shall; be without prejudice to any investigation, trial,
decision or any other legal or administrative process before
any appropriate international court or agency under
applicable international human rights and humanitarian law.

SEC. 20. Exemption from Prosecution. – Any offender who

volunteers information that leads to the discovery of the
victim of enforced or involuntary disappearance or the
prosecution of the offenders without the victim being found
shall be exempt from any criminal and/or civil liability
under this Act: Provided, That said offender does not
appear to be the most guilty.

SEC. 21. Continuing Offense. – An act constituting

enforced or involuntary disappearance shall be considered a
continuing offense as long as the perpetrators continue to
conceal the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared person
and such circumstances have not been determined with
certainty.

SEC. 22. Statue of Limitations Exemption. – The

prosecution of persons responsible for enforced or
involuntary disappearance shall not prescribe unless the
victim surfaces alive. In which case, the prescriptive period
shall be twenty-five (25) years from the date of such
reappearance.

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SEC. 23. Special Amnesty Law Exclusion. – Persons who
are changed with and/or guilty of the act of enforced or
involuntary disappearance shall not benefit from any special
amnesty law or other similar executive measures that shall
exempt them from any penal proceedings or sanctions.

SEC. 24. State Protection – The State, through its

appropriate agencies, shall ensure the safety of all persons
involved in the search, investigation and prosecution of
enforced or involuntary disappearance including, but not
limited to, the victims, their families, complainants,
witnesses, legal counsel and representatives of human rights
organizations and media. They shall likewise be protected
from any intimidation or reprisal.

SEC. 25. Applicability of Refouler. –No person shall be

expelled, returned or extradited to another State where there
are substantial grounds to believe that such person shall be
in danger of being subjected to enforced or involuntary
disappearance. For purposes of determining whether such
grounds exist, the Secretary of the Department, of Foreign
Affairs (DFA) and the Secretary of the Department of
Justice (DOJ) in coordination with the Chairperson of the
CHR, shall take into account all relevant considerations
including where applicable and not limited to, the existence
in the requesting State of a consistent pattern of gross,
flagrant or mass violations of human rights.

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SEC. 26. Restitution and Compensation to Victims of
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance and/or Their
Immediate Relatives. –The victims of enforced or
involuntary disappearance who surface alive shall be
entitled to monetary compensation, rehabilitation and
restitution of honor and reputation. Such restitution of
honor and reputation shall include immediate expunging or
rectification of any derogatory record, information or public
declaration/statement on his or her person, personal
circumstances, status, and/or organizational affiliation by
the appropriate government or private agency or agencies
concerned.

The immediate relatives of a victim of enforced or

involuntary disappearance, within the fourth civil degree of
consanguinity or affinity, may also claim for compensation
as provided for under Republic Act No. 7309, entitled “An
Act Creating a Board of Claims under the Department of
Justice for Victims of Unjust Imprisonment or Detention
and Victims of Violent Crimes and For Other Purposes”,
and other relief programs of the government.

The package of indemnification for both the victims and the

immediate relatives within the fourth civil degree of
consanguinity or affinity shall be without prejudice to other
legal remedies that may be available to them.

SEC. 27. Rehabilitation of Victims and/or Their Immediate

Relatives, and Offenders. – In order that the victims of

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enforced or involuntary disappearance who surfaced alive
and/or their immediate relatives within the fourth civil
degree of consanguinity or affinity, may be effectively
reintegrated into the mainstream of society and in the
process of development, the State, through the CHR, in
coordination with the Department of Health, the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)
and the concerned nongovernment organization/s, shall
provide them with appropriate medical care and
rehabilitation free of charge.

Toward the attainment of restorative justice, a parallel

rehabilitation program for persons who have committed
enforced or involuntary disappearance shall likewise be
implemented without cost to such offenders.

SEC. 28. Implementing Rules and Regulations. – Within

thirty (30) days from the effectivity of this Act, the DOJ,
the DSWD, the CHR, the Families of Victims of
Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) and the Families of
Desaparecidos for Justice (Desaparecidos), in consultation
with other human rights organizations, shall jointly
promulgate the rules and regulations for the effective
implementation of this Act and shall ensure the full
dissemination of the same to the public.

SEC. 29. Suppletory Applications. – The applicable

provisions of the Revised Penal Code shall have suppletory

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application insofar as they are consistent with the
provisions of this Act.

SEC. 30. Appropriations. –The amount of Ten million pesos

(P10,000,000.00) is hereby appropriated for the initial
implementation of this Act by the CHR. Subsequent fluids
for the continuing implementation of this Act shall be
included in the respective budgets of the CHR and the DOJ
in the annual General Appropriations Act.

SEC. 31. Separability Clause. –If for any reason, any

section or provision of this Act is declared unconstitutional
or invalid, such other sections or provisions not affected
thereby shall remain in full force and effect.

SEC. 32. Repealing Clause. – All laws, decrees, executive

orders, rules and regulations and other issuances or parts
thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are
hereby repealed, amended or modified accordingly.

SEC. 33. Effectivity Clause. – This Act shall take effect

fifteen (15) days after its publication in at least two (2)
newspapers of general circulation or the Official Gazette,
which shall not be later than seven (7) days after the
approval thereof.

Approved,

(Sgd.) FELICIANO BELMONTE JR. Speaker of the House

of Representatives
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(Sgd.) JUAN PONCE ENRILE President of the Senate

This Act which is a consolidation of Senate Bill No. 2817

and House Bill No. 98 was finally passed by the Senate and
the House of Representatives on October 16, 2012.

(Sgd.) MARILYN B. BARUA-YAP Secretary General

House of Representatives

(Sgd.) EMMA LIRIO-REYES Secretary of the Senate

Approved: DEC 21 2012

(Sgd.) BENIGNO S. AQUINO III President of the

Philippines

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