Protection Orders for Women and Children

If You Are in Danger Now

Your safety comes first. If you or your children are in immediate danger:

• Call 911. Since 2021, the national emergency hotline takes calls about gender-based violence, from survivors and from family, friends or witnesses. It gives immediate support, keeps your details confidential, and connects you to the nearest police station or other help.
• Go to a safe place: a relative's or friend's home, the barangay hall, or the nearest police station.
• Go to a hospital if you are hurt. Ask for the medical findings to be written down; this record helps later.

Barangay officials and police must respond at once to a call for help, remove weapons, and bring you to safety or medical care, under Section 30 of the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act (Republic Act No. 9262, or RA 9262).

Who the Law Protects

RA 9262 protects a woman who is, or was, the wife of the abuser, in a sexual or dating relationship with him, or who has a child with him. It also protects her children, legitimate or not, whether inside or outside the home.

Violence under the law is not only physical. It includes sexual violence, psychological violence (threats, harassment, stalking, public humiliation, controlling behavior), and economic abuse (withholding support, controlling your money or stopping you from working).

Barangay Protection Order (BPO)

• Where: at the barangay where you live. Ask for the VAW desk at the barangay hall.
• Who issues it: the Punong Barangay, or a Barangay Kagawad (council member) if the Punong Barangay is not available.
• How fast: on the same day you apply.
• What it does: orders the abuser to stop hurting you or threatening to hurt you.
• How long: 15 days.

Barangay officials must help you fill in the application. If the barangay does not act within 24 hours, you can go to the police or to the Family Court, and you can file a complaint against the official.

Temporary and Permanent Protection Orders From the Court

For longer and wider protection, apply to the Family Court (a branch of the Regional Trial Court) where you live.

• A Temporary Protection Order (TPO) is issued on the day you file, without the abuser being heard first, and lasts 30 days.
• A Permanent Protection Order (PPO) is issued after a hearing and stays in effect until the court lifts it at your request.

Court orders can do more than a BPO. They can remove the abuser from your home, order him to stay away from you, your children, your work and school, give you temporary custody of the children, order financial support, and order him to surrender his firearms.

The application is written and sworn to. Court staff must help you prepare it. If you cannot afford the fees, or you are in danger, the law says the court accepts the application without payment of fees.

Who Can Apply for You

You can apply yourself. Others can also apply on your behalf, including your parents or guardians, close relatives, social workers from the DSWD or your local government, police officers (preferably from the Women and Children Protection Desk), barangay officials, a lawyer, counselor or health care provider who helped you, or at least two concerned citizens who know what happened.

Where to Get Help

• Barangay VAW desk at your barangay hall.
• Women and Children Protection Desk (WCPD) at the nearest police station.
• City or municipal social welfare and development office, and the DSWD, for counseling, temporary shelter and other support.
• Public Attorney's Office (PAO), for free legal help if you qualify, including for a criminal case against the abuser.
• Women and children protection units in DOH hospitals, for medical care and documentation.

If you work, RA 9262 gives you up to 10 days of paid leave, on top of your other leaves, to attend to these matters. A Protection Order is separate from a criminal case; you can have both.

Barangay officials, police and social workers are not allowed to hold settlement talks or push you to settle. Section 33 of RA 9262 says conciliation and mediation (settlement talks) of violence against women and their children are not allowed.