Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

NINETEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No. _1993
Introduced by Representative Edcel C. Lagman

EXPLANATORY NOTE

Enforced disappearance is a grave arbitrary deprivation of liberty
perpetrated by public authorities or by private individuals or groups acting on
the orders of or with the consent and acquiescence of public authorities who
refuse to disclose information about the fate and whereabouts of the
disappeared person. Some of the victims surface alive, others are found dead
or their skeletal remains exhumed, but most remain unaccounted for or could
not be located.

Asian Theological Seminary Counseling Department Chairperson
Annabel Manzanilla-Manalo, Ph.D, illustrates the suffering and agony the
family of a victim of enforced disappearance experiences:

“The enforced disappearance of a loved one is experienced by family
members as traumatic loss. Its sudden or violent nature makes it extremely
devastating and painful...

“For most families, traumatic loss results in unresolved grief which
usually lasts for many months, or even years after the disappearance. This is
commonly expressed in lingering pain, difficulty with transitions or changes,
inability to make decisions, decreased ability to cope with routine activities,
inability to move on from a sense of loss, helplessness, and despair.
Unresolved grief reactions are indications of ‘complicated mourning’, a
condition where both trauma and grief coincide. The nature and depth of
traumatic loss and, consequently, the healing process would vary according
to factors such as availability of social support, cohesiveness of the family,
socio-economic situation, time that has elapsed since the disappearance,
establishment of truth and retrieval of the body, and the possibility of justice
and reparations. Similarly, the need to simultaneously address legal,
economic and other family concerns can make the healing process more
complicated.”

The dire emotional and economic impacts of enforced disappearance are
described by respected psychologist and Psychology Professional Regulations
Commission Board Member Imelda V. G. Villar, Ph.D as follows:

“If it is an offspring or a husband that disappeared, the spouse and/or
the other children suffer much. Mothers tend to neglect their own needs and
those of other members of the family. All energy and attention are focused on
searching for the missing child or husband. Because they withdraw socially

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and emotionally from those around them, there is a consequent loss of vital
support from the outside.

“The family can suffer from economic distress if the missing is the
breadwinner. Those left behind who are working may be so disturbed that
they cannot work and eventually lose their job. This economic difficulty may
worsen ifthe family spends money on fortune-tellers, informants and other
expensive administrative steps to find out the fate of the loved one.

“Thoughts about how the loved one may have suffered or is suffering
can heighten the pain. This is compounded by the guilt that they did not do
enough to protect the victim.”

As of June 2022, the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance
(FIND), had documented 2,066 out of 2,520 reported victims of enforced
disappearance nationwide since 1971. It is surmised that the actual number
could be much higher as fear of reprisal or being themselves abducted or
disappeared by armed perpetrators discourage the families of the victims from
reporting.

Enforced disappearance severely impact women and children as a large
majority of the victims are male. The wives of the disappeared are suddenly
thrust into an undetermined status - neither separated legally or by mutual
agreement nor widowed as they have no foolproof evidence of their husbands’
death. Wives who come from poor families where the disappeared husbands
were the sole breadwinners become saddled with economic difficulties of solo
parenting, Others who are better off encounter different financial issues
arising from the absence of the spouse, with respect to lease or sale of
conjugal property, access to their husbands’ bank accounts, among others.

The children of the disappeared have their own share of difficulties such
as dealing with the uncertainty of their parent’s fate even as they wonder
whether they are already orphaned or abandoned for reasons they can hardly
comprehend. Some of them are forced to quit school and find odd jobs to help
augment the household budget for food and other basic needs.

In response to the difficult situation of the families of the disappeared,
particularly wives and mothers, this bill seeks to recognize, albeit belatedly,
this unique status toward eliminating the stigma with which it is associated by
granting them a “Certificate of Absence” of their kin, not a certificate of death.

The “Certificate of Absence” may be used by family members of the
disappeared in order to be entitled to certain rights and benefits which may
include but are not limited to: access to bank accounts of family members who
have disappeared; inheritance, ownership, transfer, division or lease of
property; access to various forms of government assistance and social welfare
benefits more particularly those covered by the Healing Intervention Leading
to Optimum Management for Victims of Torture and Enforced Disappearance
(Paghilom) under the auspices of the Department of Social Welfare and
Development; and the right to claim, receive, and collect the remains of the
disappeared relatives once found.

Measures similar to this legislative proposal have been implemented in
Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Chile, and Colombia. Filipino families of the

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disappeared strongly urge the Philippines to join these countries in protecting
and fulfilling the economic and social rights and civil liberties of the families of
the disappeared.

It is high time that government address their special needs with
dispatch. For all the abovementioned reasons, immediate passage of this bill

is earnestly sought.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

NINETEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

House Bill No. 1393

Introduced by Representative Edcel C. Lagman

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR THE ISSUANCE OF A CERTIFICATE OF ABSENCE TO
IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBERS OF VICTIMS OF ENFORCED OR
INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCE, DEFINING RIGHTS AND BENEFITS
ACCRUING FROM POSSESSION OF THE CERTIFICATE AND FOR OTHER
PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the House of Representatives and the Senate of the Congress
of the Philippines in session assembled:

SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the “Certificate
of Absence Act of 2022.”

SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - The State values the dignity of every
human person and guarantees full respect for human rights. Recognizing the
inherent dignity and universal worth of every human person, the State
prohibits deprivation of liberty without due process of law even as it declares
the non-derogable right not to be subjected to enforced disappearance.
Notwithstanding this policy, in the event enforced disappearances are
committed, the State shall provide appropriate reparations to the families of
the disappeared, including provision of psychosocial support, accompaniment
and rehabilitation. Relevant government agencies shall render social services
and assistance to family members of the disappeared, the authenticity of
which status shall be affirmed by their holding of a “certificate of absence”
duly issued by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights and its regional
and provincial offices.

SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. - For purposes of this Act, the following
terms shall be defined as follows:

a. 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 group of persons acting with the authorization,
support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to 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;

b. 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 the preceding paragraph (a);
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c. Certificate of Absence refers to an official document issued to family
members of the disappeared persons, affirming their status as “disappeared”
as opposed to “deceased”.

SEC. 4. Scope of the Certificate of Absence - A certificate of
absence shall cover the rights of both the disappeared and their families. The
right to issuance of the certificate shall not prejudice the right of the
disappeared to be surfaced or released from detention; the right of the
families to know the truth about the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared
kin, the progress and the result of government’s investigation into the
disappearance; and their right to all pertinent legal remedies and reparations
available and to which they are entitled; and the right to claim and receive
the remains of the victims if found or recovered.

SEC. 5. Rights and Benefits Accruing from the Certificate of
Absence. - Legal holders of the Certificate of Absence shall be entitled to
rights and benefits including but not limited to the following:

(a)| Access to bank accounts of family members who have
disappeared;

(b) Inheritance, ownership, transfer, division or lease of property;

(c) Ability to enter or formalize a new marriage in accordance with
article 41 of the Family Code, Executive Order No. 209, as amended, in relation
to article 391 of the New Civil Code, Republic Act No. 386, as amended;

(d) | Monetary as well as nonmonetary reparations;

(e) Access to various forms of government assistance and social
welfare benefits under Paghilom and RA 10353 otherwise known as the “Anti-
Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012”;

(f) | Access to benefits under the “Solo Parents’ Welfare Act of 2000”
(RA 8972) as amended by the “Expanded Solo Parents Act of 2022” (RA
11861);

(g) Appropriate civil status of “spouse of the disappeared” and not a
widow or widower;

(h) | Recognition of the status of “child/children of the disappeared”
and not orphaned or abandoned;

(i) | Right to claim, receive and collect the remains of the disappeared
relatives; and

(j) | Right to file complaints under RA 10353.

SEC. 6. Inapplicability of the Statute of Limitations. - Consistent
with the continuing character of enforced disappearance and its exemption
from the statute of limitations under Sections 21 and 22 of RA 10353, the
issuance of a Certificate of Absence shall not bar or discontinue the
Prosecution of persons responsible for enforced or involuntary disappearance

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or hinder the investigations that seek to establish the truth and locate the
victims alive or dead and duly identified.

SEC. 7. Authority to Issue Certificates of Absence. - The
Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and its provincial and regional offices are
authorized to issue Certificates of Absence to family members of the
disappeared within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity upon
their compliance with reasonable requirements, without the need to pay
application and/or processing fees.

SEC. 8. Centralized Database of Information. - In coordination with
nongovernment human rights organizations documenting cases or incidents
of enforced or involuntary disappearance, the CHR shall establish, maintain
and update monthly a centralized database of information on enforced
disappearance victims from the Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. administration up to
the current dispensation. Digital security protocols shall be strictly observed
in the storage, release and sharing of information. Only persons with
legitimate interest in the stored information may be allowed access thereto.

SEC. 9. Expeditious Issuance of Certificate of Absence. - The CHR
shall expeditiously issue the Certificate of Absence within seven (7) days upon
filing of application with the National Central Office or fourteen (14) days if
the application is filed with any of the CHR’s provincial or regional offices.

The Certificate of Absence shall be valid for a period of seven (7) years
from the date of issuance at which expiration, the concerned family may opt
for a death certificate or a renewal of the Certificate of Absence for an
indefinite period.

SEC. 10. Revocation of the Certificate of Absence. The Certificate
of Absence may be revoked anytime if the disappeared person is found alive
or has reappeared as construed under Section 23 of the Implementing Rules
and Regulations of RA 10353, or whose remains have been exhumed or
recovered. Revocation shall be without prejudice to investigation into the past
disappearance, prosecution of those responsible for the offense and grant of
reparation to the surfaced victim and his or her family or the family of the
victims whose remains have been exhumed or recovered and returned to the
family.

Section 11. Implementing Rules and Regulations. - Within thirty
(30) days from the effectivity of this Act, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the
Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the CHR, and the
Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) 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 dissernination of the same to the public.

SEC. 12. Separability Clause. - If for any reason any part or provision
of this Act is declared unconstitutional or invalid, the other parts or provisions
hereof which are not affected thereby shall remain and continue to be in full
force and effect.

SEC. 13. Repealing Clause. - All laws, decrees, executive orders,
rules and regulations and other issuances or parts thereof, inconsistent with

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the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed, amended or modified
accordingly.

SEC. 14. 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.

Approved,