FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
Second Regular Session 
S E N A T E  
Senate Bill No. 
Introduced by Senator Manny B. Villar 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone 
has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. 
This declaration does not apply only in other parts of the world. It also applies 
Kere in the Philippines where the security of person is often violated by the entity 
assigned to protect it, the State. Especially as the Philippines is a signatory to the UN 
Charter, which encompasses the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 
The 1987 Constitution recognizes this when it provides that the right to liberty 
may not be deprived without due process of law. 
Sadly, the Executive Department has been embroiled in controversy regarding the 
disappearance of persons, most notably, people who have been vocal in expressing their 
displeasure over the way the executive department runs its affairs. 
In an attempt to curb the said acts of the State, the Supreme Court has passed 
several rules of note, starting with the writ of amparo, and most recently, the writ of 
habeas data. 
But the disappearances of the persons continued, 
This bill is earnestly sought to be passed so that the elements of the State, and 
even their representatives may be fully apprised that their acts are criminal and may 
eventually result in their sentence behind the cold bars of prison. 
MANNY VI$LAR 


FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE 
) 
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES 
) 
Second Regular Session 
1 
Senate Bill No. 
8 
Introduced by Senator Manny Villar 
AN ACT 
DEFINING 
AND 
PENALIZING 
ENFORCED 
OR 
INVOLUNTARY 
DISAPPEARANCE 
Be it enucted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress 
ussem bled: 
SECTION 1. Short Title. -This Act shall be known as the "Anti-Enforced or 
Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2008." 
SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - The State values the dignity of every human being 
and guarantees full respect for human rights for which highest priority shall be given to the 
enactment of nieasures for the enhancement of the right of the people to human dignity, the 
prohibition against enforced or involuntary disappearance, the provision for penal and civil 
sanctions for violations thereof, and compensation and rehabilitation of the victims and their 
families. Further, no acts of torture, force, violence, threat or intimidation or any act which 
vitiates the free will shall be employed against the person abducted, arrested, detained, 
disappeared or otherwise removed from the effective protection of the law. 
SEC. 3. Definition of Enforced or Znvoluntaiy Disappearance. - For purposes of 
this Act, enforced or involuntary disappearance shall be deemed committed when a person is 
deprived of hisiher liberty, in whatsoever form for political reason(s) by agents of the State or 
by private persons or group of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence 
of the State, followed by an absence of information, or refusal to acknowledge the 
deprivation of liberty and information, or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the 
disappeared person thus placing such person outside the protection of the law. 
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In the event the prosecution fails to prove political motive, the deprivation of liberty 
of the victim who surfaces alive shall be punishable as kidnapping under the Revised Penal 
Code. If the victim is subsequently found dead or hidher disappearance persists for over 
three (3) years, he/she is presumed killed by those responsible for hidher arrest or abduction, 
and the act of enforced or Involuntary disappearance in either case shall be punishable as 
murder. 
SEC. 4. Permanent Prohibition of Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance. - The 
prohibition of enforced or involuntary disappearance and the fundamental safeguards for its 
prevention shall not be suspended under any circumstances including political instability, 
threat of war, state of war or other public emergencies. 
. 
SEC. 5. "Order of Battle" Not Legal Ground for Enforced or Involuntary 
Disappearance. - An "Order of Battle", official or otherwise, issued by the military, police or 
any law enforcement agency of the Government, shall not justify an enforced or involuntary 
disappearance and shall subject the perpetrators to the same corresponding penalties provided 
in this Act. 
SEC. 6. Right of Victim ofEnforced or Involuntary Disappearance. - It shall be the 
absolute right of a victim of enforced or Involuntary disappearance to immediately inform 
hidher family, relative, lawyer(s) or a human rights organization by all means that are 
available and expeditious, by cellular phone, landline, courier, electronic mall, telegram, 
radio or other means, on his or her whereabouts and condition. 
SEC. 7. Duty of Person(s) Keeping, Arresting, or Detaining Victirnfs) of Enforced 
or Involuntary Disappearance. - Any person(s) keeping, arresting or detaining a victim of 
enforced or involuntary disappearance or who shall learn or have information of such fact 
shall have the duty to immediately report in writing on the circumstances and whereabouts of 
such victim to the nearest office of the Philippine National Police (PNP), Armed Forces of 
the Philippines (AFP), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), 
Department of National Defense (DND), the City or Provincial Public Prosecutor, the 


Commission on Human Rights (CHR) as well as the victim’s family, relatives, lawyer(s) or to 
a huinaii rights organization by the most expedient means. 
SEC. 8. Duty of Person@) to Certifv in Writing on the Results of Inquiry into a 
Possible Victim’s Whereabouts. - In case a family member, relative, lawyer(s), human rights 
organization or member of the media inquires with a member or official of any police or 
military detention center, the PNP or any o f  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 andor information on the 
whereabouts of such possible victim. 
SEC. 9. Duty of Inquesflnvestigating Public Prosecutor or any Judicial or Quasi- 
jndicial Employee or Official. - Any Inquest or Investigating Public Prosecutor or any 
jadicial or quasi-judicial employee or official who learns of such disappearance and upon 
whom the victim of enforced OK involuntary disappearance is delivered for inquest or 
preliminary investigation or for any other judicial process, shall have the duty to immediately 
disclose such circumstances and the victim’s whereabouts to hisiher immediate family, 
relatives, or lawyers or to a human rights organization by the most expedient means. 
SEC. 10. Official Up-to-Date Register of all Persons Detained or Confined. - All 
persons deprived of liberty shall be held solely in officially recognized and controlled places 
of detention or confinement where an official up-to-date register of such persons shall be 
maintained. All information contained in the register shall be made available to the relatives, 
lawyers, judges, official bodies and to all persons who have legitimate interest in the 
information. 
SEC. 11. Visits of Inspection to All Places of Detention. 
~ 
Competent 
representatives of the Commission on Human Rights shall conduct regular, independent, 
unannounced and unrestricted visits of Inspection to all places of detention and confinement. 
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SEC. 12. Liability of Commanding Officer. - The immediate Commanding Officer 
or equivalent Senior Official shall be held liable for an enforced or involuntary 
disappearance. Any failure on hisiher part, whether done with deliberate intent or negligence 
to avert an act of enforced or involuntary disappearance shall be taken as evidence of 
conspiracy. 
SEC. 13. Penal Provisions. - (A) The penalty of reclusionperpetua 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 carried out; 
(4) Those officials who allowed the act of enforced or involuntary 
disappearance when it is within their power to stop the commission of 
such act; 
(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 shall be imposed upon those who attempt to 
commit the offense of enforced or involuntary disappearance. 
(C) The penalty of reclusion temporal shall also be imposed upon the persons who, 
having knowledge of the act of enforced or involuntary disappearance, and without having 
participated therein, either as participants or accomplices, took part subsequent to its 
commission in any of the following manners: 
(1) By themselves profiting from or assisting the offender lo profit from the 
effects of the act of enforced or involuntary disappearance; 
(2) By concealing the act of enforced or involuntary disappearance, and/or 
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destroying the effects or instruments thereof, in order to prevent its 
discovery; 
(3) By harboring, concealing, or assisting in the escape of the principal(s) in 
the act of enforced or involuntary disappearance, provided the accessory 
acts are done with the abuse of the official’s public functions. 
(D) The penalty of prision coveccional shall be imposed against any person who 
defies, ignores, or unduly delays compliance with a habeas corpus or writ of amparo 
Ijroceeding filed on behalf of the victim of enforced or involuntary disappearance or to 
immediately follow or comply with an order of release by virtue of such proceeding or other 
appropriate judicial order. 
’ 
(E) The penalty of arresto mayor shall be imposed against any person who violates 
the provisions of Sections 6,7, 8 and 9 of this Act. 
SEC. 14. Preventive Suspension. - The perpetrators of and other participants in the 
commission of enforced or involuntary disappearance shall be preventively suspended and 
yohibited from performing any official duties upon the filing of the information or 
complaint in the proper court until the promulgation of judgment. 
SEC. 15. Civil Liabi/ity. - Enforced or involuntary disappearance shall render its 
perpetrators and the State authorities which organized, acquiesced in or tolerated such 
disappearance liable under civil law. 
SEC. 16. Unlawful Order. - An order from a superior officer or a public authority 
causing the commission of enforced or involuntaw disappearance is unlawful and cannot be 
invoked as a justifying circumstance. 
SEC. 17. 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 the whereabouts of the persons who have disappeared and these facts 
remain unverified. 
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SEC. 18. Exclusion from the Coverage of a Statute of Limitation. - 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 start to run from the date 
of hidher reappearance. 
SEC. 19. Exclusion from the Coverage of Special Amnesty Law. - Persons who have 
committed the act of enforced or involuntary disappearance shall not benefit from any special 
amnesty law or similar measures that will have the effect of exempting them from any 
criminal proceedings and sanctions. 
SEC. 20. State’s Protection. - The Slate through Its appropriate agencies shall ensure 
the safety of all persons involved in the search, investigation and prosecution of enforced or 
iovoluntary disappearance including the victims, their families, complainants, witnesses, 
representatives of human rights organizations, media and legal counsel. They shall likewise 
be protected from any act of intimidation or reprisal as a result of the filing of charges. Any 
person committing such ill-treatment and/or acts of intimidation or reprisal shall be punished 
under existing laws. 
SEC. 21. Compensation to and/or Rehabilitation of Victims of Enforced or 
Involuntary Disappearance and/or Their Next-of-Kin. - The victims of enforced of 
involuntary disappearance who surfaced 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 declaratiodstatement on hidher personal circumstances, status, person, or affiliation 
by the appropriate government or private agency or agencies concerned. 
The next-of-kin of a victim of enforced or involuntary disappearance may also claim 
for compensation as provided for under Republic Act 7309 and other relief programs of the 
Government. 
The package of indemnification for both the victims and the next-of-kin shall be 
without prejudice to other legal remedies that may he available to them. 
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In order that the nearest of kin of victims of enforced or involuntary disappearance 
and the victims who surfaced alive maybe effectively reintegrated Into the mainstream of 
society and in the process of development, the State through the Commission on Human 
Rights shall provide them with appropriate medical care and rehabilitation free of charge. 
SEC. 22. Zmplementing Rules and Regulations. - Within thirty (30) days from the 
effectivity of this Act, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Commission on Human Rights 
(CHR) and the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) 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 in consultation with other human 
rights organizations such as the Asian Federation Against Enforced or Involuntary 
Disappearance, KARAPATAN and other human rights organizations. 
SEC. 23. Monitoring of Compliance with this Act. - An Oversight Committee is 
hereby created to periodically oversee the implementation of this Act. The group shall be 
headed by a Commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and with the following as 
members: an Undersecretary of the Department of Justice, Chairperson of the Senate 
Committee on Justice and Human Rights, respective Chairpersons of the House of 
Representatives Committees on Justice and Civil and Political and Human Rights and the 
Secretary General of the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND). 
SEC. 24. SuppZetory Applications. -The provisions of the Revised Penal Code shall 
be suppletory to this A.ct. 
SEC. 25. Appropriations. - The funds necessary for the effective implementation of 
this Act shall be sourced from the contingent fund of the President for fiscal year in which 
this Act is passed and subsequently included in the budget of the Commission on Human 
Rights under the General Appropriations Act ofthe year following the passage ofthis Act. 
SEC. 26. Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Fund. - In addition to the funding 
sources provided for in the preceding section, two percent (2Yo) of the filing fees in civil 
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cases and special proceedings before all courts, including the Court of Appeals and the 
Supreme Court, shall be collected to constitute an enforced or involuntary disappearance 
fund. 
SEC. 27. Sepnvnbility Ctnnse. - If any provision of this Act is declared invalid, the 
remainder thereof not affected thereby shall continue to be in full force and effect. 
SEC. 28. Repenling 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 or modified accordingly. 
SEC. 29. Ejjedivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication 
in at least two (2) newspapers of general circulation. 
Approved, 
8