THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE ) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ) 
THIRD REGULAR SESSION 
1 
S.B. No. 
245.4 
Introduced by SENATOR ALFRED0 S. LIM 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Because of serve economic hardship resulting in the high cost 
of medical facilities and services, many of those who seek hospital 
confinement and treatment are unable to settle their bills with 
promptitude. Some hospital, wary of the problems of not getting 
paid, unscrupulously hold hostage patients in their hospitals until 
and unless the relatives are able to pay the bills. Meantime, the bills 
continue to pile up as the patient remains in confinement. 
The same is true with funeral parlors of morgues who refuse 
to release the bodies of persons on whom they had performed 
mortuary services including burial, because of the relatives' failure 
to settle the fees charged by mortuaries. 
Poverty should not be a reason to detain or hold hostage 
patients or cadavers, if only to show respect for human beings and 
for the government to come to the aid of these financially 
distressed families who can ill- afford reasonable hospital services, 
or mortuaries to provide decent care and services to dead bodies 
which equally deserve respect and honor. 
Hence, it is the bill's purpose to put a stop to the immoral and 
inhuman practice of hospitals or funeral parlors in using persons or 
dead bodies as hostages just to be able to compel the relatives to 
pay them for what they claim. 
Senator 


THIRTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE ) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ) 
THIRD REGULAR SESSION 
1 
S.B. NO. 
4 54 
RECEIVED BY : 
Introduced by SENATOR ALFRED0 S.LIM 
AN ACT 
PENALIZING HOSPITALS AND FUNERAL PARLORS 
FOR HOSTAGING PATIENTS OR CADAVERS 
Be it enacted by the Senate and the House of Representative of the 
Philippines In Congress assembled: 
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SECTION 1. Prohibited Acts Affecting Patients. - It shall be 
unlawful for hospitals, lying in, medical clinics or infirmaries 
involved in providing care and treatment of patients, to take 
hostage, custody or detain any patient, or refuse to release or 
discharge him by reason of his failure or inability to pay in full his 
medical bills incurred for confinement, operation or for doctors' fees, 
or other expenses chargeable to him for his confinement and 
treatment, when such patient is already entitled or eligible for 
release or discharge except for his unpaid bills; provided, however, 
that said hospitals, lying in, medical clinics or infirmaries shall not 
be obligated to retain or maintain in confinement such patients 
even if the illness or ailment shall not have been fully treated. 
SECTION 2. 
Prohibited Acts on Cadavers. - It shall be 
unlawful for funeral parlors, morgues or mortuaries or those 
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involved in the handling of dead bodies for temporary lodging or 


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viewing during the wake or providing coffins and related services, 
to take hostage, custody or detain any cadaver or dead body, or 
refuse to release or discharge the same by reason of such dead 
bodies' living relatives' failure or inability to pay in full its expenses 
for mortuary or those chargeable to it for its burial. 
Section 3. 
Conditions for Release/Discharge of Patient or 
Cadaver. - Before a patient who is due for release or discharge but 
is unable to immediately pay in full his obligation to a hospital or 
doctors' expense, is discharged or released, he may be required to 
execute, by himself or with the assistance of his relatives, an 
acknowledgement of the full amount of his indebtedness to the 
hospital and his doctors and undertaking to pay his bills at a fixed 
period of time. 
In the case of a dead body or cadaver, the acknowledgment 
and undertaking shall be executed by any of its relatives or next of 
kin or whoever shall voluntarily assume the liability of the cadaver's 
relatives' obligation. 
Section 4. 
Violator of this Act, punishable under. 
268 of 
the Revised Penal Code; Persons liable. - Any person, corporation 
or business firm or entity found violating Sections 1 or 2 hereof 
shall be punished under Art. 268 of the Revised penal Code; 
provided, however, in case of a corporation, partnership or any 
business firm or entity, the owners, directors, general manager or 
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such violation. 
chief executive officer and treasurer shall be personally liable for 
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Section 5. 
Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) 
days after its publication in a newspaper of general circulation. 
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Approved. 
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