Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
HOUSE BILL NO. _______ 
Introduced by HON. GUS S. TAMBUNTING 
AN ACT 
DECLARING THE TIME BETWEEN TWELVE IN THE MORNING AND FOUR IN THE 
MORNING AS UNSAFE HOURS, PROHIBITING THE LOITERING, ROAMING AROUND, 
SLEEPING, OR MEANDERING OF CHILDREN IN PUBLIC PLACES DURING THESE 
HOURS, PRESCRIBING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY THEIR 
PARENTS OR GUARDIANS, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Article XV, Section 3 provides that it is the mandate of the State to “defend the right of children 
to assistance, including proper care and nutrition, and special protection from all forms of neglect, 
abuse, cruelty, exploitation and other conditions prejudicial to their development.” 
It is also the policy of the state to promote and protect the physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, 
and social well-being of the children and youth. 
In cognizance of the abovementioned State’s responsibilities, this proposed measure shall declare 
as unlawful for parents or guardians to, knowingly or by insufficient control, allow unchaperoned 
children to loiter, roam around, or sleep in any public place from 12:00 am to 4:00 am without 
lawful purpose or justifiable reason.  
This is to protect minors from threats of crime, abuse, and exploitation. Likewise, this shall also 
protect them from negative influences and prevent syndicates from using minors as pawns for 
criminal activities.  
On behalf of the people of Parañaque City’s Second District, and for the common good of the 
Filipino people, the approval of the said measure is earnestly sought. 
REP. GUS S. TAMBUNTING 
2nd District, Parañaque City 
September 22, 2022
5:00 pm
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Republic of the Philippines 
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
Quezon City 
NINETEENTH CONGRESS 
First Regular Session 
HOUSE BILL NO. _______ 
Introduced by HON. GUS S. TAMBUNTING 
AN ACT 
DECLARING THE TIME BETWEEN TWELVE IN THE MORNING AND FOUR IN THE 
MORNING AS UNSAFE HOURS, PROHIBITING THE LOITERING, ROAMING AROUND, 
SLEEPING, OR MEANDERING OF CHILDREN IN PUBLIC PLACES DURING THESE 
HOURS, PRESCRIBING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS COMMITTED BY THEIR 
PARENTS OR GUARDIANS, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR 
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 "Unsafe Hours for Children Act". 
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. – The following State policies shall be observed at all times: 
(a) The State recognizes the vital role of children and youth in nation-building and shall
promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual, and social well-being.
(b) The State supports the right of children to engage in safe and wholesome recreational
activities, as well as to enjoy a respite from activity, take a rest, and have adequate sleep.
(c) The State acknowledges the right of children to be protected from all forms of neglect,
abuse, cruelty, exploitation, and other conditions prejudicial to their development.
(d) The State shall protect and rehabilitate children who are gravely threatened or
endangered by circumstances that can affect their survival and normal development and
over which they have no control.
SEC. 3. Objectives. – The objectives of this Act are to: 
(a) promote the well-being of children and their families by ensuring their collective safety;
(b) protect children from negative influences and the adverse effects of unsupervised social
activity outside of the home;
(c) reduce the time when children can be used as instruments of crime; and,
(d) protect children from being victims of crime, abuse, and other forms of exploitation.
SEC. 4. Definition of Terms. – As used in this Act: 
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(a) Abode refers to either a permanent or temporary home, residence, lodging place, 
campsite, school, or any other safe place where a child stays with family, guardians, or 
school authorities.  
(b) Children refers to persons below eighteen (18) years of age, or those over eighteen (18) 
years old but are unable to fully take care of themselves or protect themselves from abuse, 
neglect, cruelty, exploitation, or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability 
or condition;  
(c) Emergency refers to a combination of unforeseen circumstances or the resulting state that 
calls for immediate action such as fire, natural disaster, accident, other medical cases, or 
any situation requiring immediate action to prevent any serious threat or injury to a child's 
physical, emotional, or psychological well-being;  
(d) Guardians refer to persons of legal age other than the parents, who are tasked to take 
care of the child at a particular time, whether relative or not, such as legal guardians, 
grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, siblings, household helpers, or school authorities;  
(e) Insufficient Control refers to the lack or absence of measures intended to keep the child 
inside, or prevent the child from leaving, the family abode during unsafe hours; 
(f) Loiter refers to the act of lingering or remaining idly in a public place; 
(g) Parents refer to natural or biological parents, adoptive parents, foster parents, or step-
parents of children;  
(h) Public place refers to all places accessible to the general public or places for collective 
use; 
(i) Unsafe hours refer to the time between twelve o'clock (12:00) in the morning up to four 
(4:00) o'clock in the morning.  
SEC. 5. Prohibition. – It shall be unlawful for parents or guardians to, knowingly or by 
insufficient control, allow children to loiter, roam around, meander, or sleep in any public place 
during unsafe hours from twelve o'clock (12:00) in the morning up to four o'clock (4:00) in the 
morning without lawful purpose or justifiable reason.  
SEC. 6. Exceptions. – The prohibitions provided under the preceding section shall not apply 
when children are: 
(a) chaperoned or accompanied by either parent or guardian; 
(b) traveling or are in a motor vehicle, whether a privately-owned vehicle, school service 
vehicle, or public utility vehicle, in the early morning or late at night, due to the long 
distance between school and abode;  
(c) engaged in an authorized employment activity, or going to or returning home from the 
same, without any detour or stop; 
(d) involved in an emergency; 
(e) out of their residence attending an official school, religious, recreational, educational, 
social, community, or other organized activity sponsored by the government, school, or 
other private civic organization; or when the children are going to or returning home from 
the such activity without any detour or stop;  


(f) able to present any document certifying that they are students and have been dismissed 
from their classes late in the evening, or that they are working students.  
SEC. 7. Reach Out Protocol. – The moment a child is found in a public place or outside an 
abode during unsafe hours, the following procedures known as Reach Out Protocol shall govern:  
(a) The law enforcement officer shall: 
i. 
explain in simple language or dialect that is understandable to the child why the 
child is being brought to the barangay office;  
ii. 
present proper identification to the child;  
iii. 
determine the age of the child; and, 
iv. 
endorse the care of the child to the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children 
(BCPC), or in the absence thereof, to the Barangay Violence Against Women and 
Children (VAWC) desk officer. 
(b) Once the child is handed over, the BCPC or the Barangay VAWC shall ensure that: 
i. 
the child is handed over to the LSWDO not later than eight (8) hours after the child 
was found; and, 
ii. 
the parents or guardians are immediately notified. 
Within this period, law enforcement and barangay personnel are strictly prohibited from using 
vulgar or profane words, sexually harassing or making sexual advances on, or abusing the 
child; displaying or using any firearm, weapon, handcuffs, or other instruments of force, 
restraint, or intimidation, unless necessary and only after all other methods of control have 
been exhausted and have failed; or using violence or unnecessary force on the child.  
A detailed Reach Out Protocol to set the standard procedure and to provide a common 
framework for processing children found during unsafe hours shall be created by the Council 
for the Welfare of Children (CWC), in consultation with the Department of Social Welfare and 
Development (DSWD), within ninety (90) days from the effectivity of this Act: Provided That, 
the said protocol shall be by the provisions on status offenses under Republic Act No. 9344, 
also known as the Juvenile Justice Welfare Act, as amended by Republic Act No. 10630, 
otherwise known as the "Strengthening the Juvenile Justice System in the Philippines".  
(c) After the child is handed over to the Local Social Welfare and Development Office 
(LSWDO), the social welfare and development officer shall explain to the child and the 
child's parents or guardians the consequences of the child's activities with a view towards 
counseling.  
SEC. 8. Interventions for Children. – Children who are found outside their abodes during 
unsafe hours shall be afforded the following interventions:  
For the first offense, the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) will counsel the 
child before the child is properly handed over to the parent/s or guardian/s;  
A child found violating this Act for the second time will be required to attend, together with the 
parent/s or guardian/s, two (2) consecutive regular sessions of counseling conducted by the 


BCPC, which shall include this matter as part of its session's agenda; Provided, That the BCPC 
Chairperson shall issue a certificate of compliance on the penalty by the concerned child with the 
parent/s or guardian/s. Provided further, the child with the parent/s or guardian/s shall be 
required to submit the certification issued by the BCPC Chairperson to the Punong Barangay and 
the apprehending officer within two (2) months from the date of violation. Provided finally, That 
non-compliance with the counseling requirement will elevate the matter to the DSWD for proper 
disposition. 
For the third and every subsequent offense, the child shall be handed over to the DSWD office 
with jurisdiction over the locality of the residence of the child, for appropriate counseling and 
proper disposition on the matter.  
Children that are habitual violators of this Act shall be handed over to the DSWD for counseling 
and shall be subjected to appropriate interventions.  
In cases when children have adopted the streets, sidewalks, parks, markets, premises of malls or 
establishments, or any public place as their home, the respective barangay government shall 
ensure that children who may not have parents or guardians are referred to the LSWDO.  
SEC. 9. Penalties for Parents or Guardians. – The parent/s or guardian/s of the child who is 
left unattended during unsafe hours shall be summoned to fetch the child from the barangay hall 
and be informed of the consequences in case of subsequent violation. Likewise, the parent/s or 
guardian/s shall be penalized with:  
For the first offense, community service of forty-eight (48) hours or a fine of Two thousand pesos 
(P2, 000.00) or both. For the second offense, seventy-two (72) hours of community service or a 
fine of Three thousand pesos (P3,000.00) or both; and for the third offense and every subsequent 
offense, community service of one hundred (100) hours, and a fine of Five thousand pesos 
(P5,000.00) or both.  
SEC. 10. Role of Government. – All Barangay Captains shall oversee the implementation of 
this Act. The BCPC shall take an active role in the implementation of this Act and shall conduct a 
massive advocacy campaign on the dangers of children being outside their abode during unsafe 
hours. The DSWD shall ensure that local government units (LGUs) can conduct the necessary and 
appropriate counseling for offending parents and their children.  
SEC 11. Community Involvement. – Any person who has personal knowledge of the existence 
of any unchaperoned child in any public place during unsafe hours must immediately call the 
attention of any official from the closest barangay, police officer, or another person in authority 
to ensure the safety of the child. Thereafter, the Reach Out Protocol should be observed by the 
responding officers.  
SEC. 12. Non-implementation or Violations of this Act. – Any public officer vested with the 
duty to implement the law, who shall knowingly and maliciously prevent, prohibit, refuse, 
discontinue, or violate the implementation of any provision of this Act, or any of the rules and 
regulations promulgated in accordance thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment of not less 
than six (6) years but not more than twelve (12) years, and temporary suspension from public 
service.  


Any such officer who shall prevent, prohibit, refuse, or discontinue the implementation of this Act 
or its rules and regulations, or in any other way violate them because of inexcusable negligence 
or ignorance, shall be punished by imprisonment of not less than one (1) month but not more 
than six (6) months, and temporary suspension from public service.  
The public officer liable under this Section shall, in addition to the imprisonment, be held 
administratively liable under applicable Jaws.  
SEC. 13. Annual Report. – The Department of Interior and Local Government (DCLG), in 
coordination with concerned agencies, shall submit an annual report to the Congress of the 
Philippines on the status of the implementation of this Act.  
SEC. 14. Appropriations. – The amount necessary to cover the implementation of this Act shall 
be charged against the current year's appropriations of the concerned agencies. 
Thereafter, the funding requirement for its continued implementation shall be included in the 
annual General Appropriations Act. 
For LGUs, the implementation of the programs shall be funded from their internal revenue 
allotment and other internally generated funds.  
SEC. 15. Implementing Rules and Regulations. – Within sixty (60) days from the effectivity 
of this Act, the DILG, in consultation with the Liga ng Mga Barangay sa Pilipinas, CWC, National 
Youth Commission (NYC), and DSWD, shall promulgate the rules and regulations for 
implementation.  
SEC. 16. Separability Clause. – If any part or provision of this Act is declared invalid or 
unconstitutional, the other parts hereof not affected thereby shall remain valid.  
SEC. 17. Repealing Clause. – All laws, orders, proclamations, rules, and regulations, or parts 
thereof, which are inconsistent with any provision of this Act are hereby repealed or modified 
accordingly.  
SEC. 18. Effectivity. – This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the 
Official Gazette or any newspaper of general circulation. 
Approved,