PENAL PROVISIONS OF THE PHILIPPINE DISASTER RISK REDUCTION AND MANAGEMENT ACT OF 2010
(R.A. No. 10121)

Source and edition note. This is an excerpt of sections 19–20 of R.A. No. 10121 as enacted in 2010, not the full Act. The signed original prints “or more than twelve (12) years” and “Republic Act No. 3185”; those words are kept as issued. The implementing rules, Rule 17, read “or not more than twelve (12) years.” The Revised Penal Code is Act No. 3815.

RA12287 (2025) §§12–13 establish additional prohibitions and penalties concerning declarations of a state of imminent disaster. Section 12 expressly adds to RA10121 §19; these separate offenses are outside this original excerpt. The government announcement of its 2026 IRR was traced, but the linked original IRR was not acquired. This review does not certify the disputed penalty wording, current administrative implementation, or exact publication-triggered effectivity dates.

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SEC. 19. Prohibited Acts. — Any person, group or corporation who commits any of the following prohibited acts shall be held liable and be subjected to the penalties as prescribed in Section 20 of this Act:

1. Dereliction of duties which leads to destruction, loss of lives, critical damage of facilities and misuse of funds;
2. Preventing the entry and distribution of relief goods in disaster-stricken areas, including appropriate technology, tools, equipment, accessories, disaster teams/experts;
3. Buying, for consumption or resale, from disaster relief agencies any relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities which are intended for distribution to disaster affected communities;
4. Buying, for consumption or resale, from the recipient disaster affected persons any relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities received by them;
5. Selling of relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities which are intended for distribution to disaster victims;
6. Forcibly seizing relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities intended for or consigned to a specific group of victims or relief agency;
7. Diverting or misdelivery of relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities to persons other than the rightful recipient or consignee;
8. Accepting, possessing, using or disposing relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities not intended for nor consigned to him/her;
9. Misrepresenting the source of relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities by:
   1. Either covering, replacing or defacing the labels of the containers to make it appear that the goods, equipment or other aid commodities came from another agency or persons;
   2. Repacking the goods, equipment or other aid commodities into containers with different markings to make it appear that the goods came from another agency or persons or was released upon the instance of a particular agency or persons;
   3. Making false verbal claim that the goods, equipment or other aid commodity in its untampered original containers actually came from another agency or persons or was released upon the instance of a particular agency or persons;
10. Substituting or replacing relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities with the same items or inferior/cheaper quality;
11. Illegal solicitations by persons or organizations representing others as defined in the standards and guidelines set by the NDRRMC;
12. Deliberate use of false or inflated data in support of the request for funding, relief goods, equipment or other aid commodities for emergency assistance or livelihood projects; and
13. Tampering with or stealing hazard monitoring and disaster preparedness equipment and paraphernalia.

SEC. 20. Penal Clause. — Any individual, corporation, partnership, association, or other juridical entity that commits any of the prohibited acts provided for in Section 19 of this Act shall be prosecuted and upon conviction shall suffer a fine of not less than Fifty thousand pesos (Php50,000.00) or any amount not to exceed Five hundred thousand pesos (Php500,000.00) or imprisonment of not less than six (6) years and one (1) day or more than twelve (12) years, or both, at the discretion of the court, including perpetual disqualification from public office if the offender is a public officer, and confiscation or forfeiture in favor of the government of the objects and the instrumentalities used in committing any of herein prohibited acts.

If the offender is a corporation, partnership or association, or other juridical entity, the penalty shall be imposed upon the officer or officers of the corporation, partnership, association or entity responsible for the violation without prejudice to the cancellation or revocation of these entities’ license or accreditation issued to them by any licensing or accredited body of the government. If such offender is an alien, he or she shall, in addition to the penalties prescribed in this Act, be deported without further proceedings after service of the sentence.

However, the prosecution for offenses set forth in Section 19 of this Act shall be without prejudice to any liability for violation of Republic Act No. 3185, as amended, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code, and other civil liabilities.

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Approved, May 27, 2010.