THE Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Friday expressed support for the imposition of stiffer penalties for hospital detention, and called for institutional accountability.
The CHR rallied behind the proposed amendments to Republic Act 9439 or the Anti-Hospital Detention Law, and strongly urging the House of Representatives to ensure that accountability is directed at hospital management and institutional policies that enable detention—not to employees who lack authority to release patients.
In a position paper submitted to the Senate Committee on Health and Demography, the CHR underscored the need for “proportional and differentiated accountability,” emphasizing that responsibility for hospital detention primarily rests with those who formulate and enforce hospital policies, rather than with personnel who merely implement them. This reflects the human rights principle that those in authority bear responsibility for institutional practices that lead to violations.”
It recommended refining the penal provisions in Section 3 of RA 9439 to impose liability only on those who willfully and knowingly commit violations, while expressly protecting employees who act in good faith or without the authority to discharge patients or release cadavers.
The Commission also proposed that hospitals, as juridical entities, must be held administratively accountable for institutional policies or practices that result in hospital detention, ensuring that sanctions reach the level where decisions are actually made.
The agency also sought a graduated system of administrative sanctions, such as suspension, mandatory compliance audits, or probationary monitoring, before resorting to license revocation, to safeguard fairness and due process while still deterring violations.
It urged the inclusion of explicit provisions guaranteeing victims access to separate civil and administrative remedies for damages, ensuring full redress for patients and families alongside penal sanctions.
The recommendations are anchored on the 1987 Constitution, specifically Article II, Section 11, which values the dignity of every human person, and Article XIII, Section 11, which mandates an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development, it maintained.
