Fifteenth Congress
Third Regular Session
Begun and held in Metro Manila, on Monday, the twenty-third day of July, two thousand twelve.
REPUBLIC ACT No. 10364
AN ACT EXPANDING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 9208, ENTITLED "AN ACT TO INSTITUTE POLICIES
TO ELIMINATE TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS ESPECIALLY WOMEN AND CHILDREN,
ESTABLISHING THE NECESSARY INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS FOR THE PROTECTION AND
SUPPORT OF TRAFFICKED PERSONS, PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR ITS VIOLATIONS AND
FOR OTHER PURPOSES"
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:
Section 1. Short Title. – This Act shall be known as the "Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of
2012″.
Section 2. Section 2 of Republic Act No. 9208 is hereby amended to read as follows:
"SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. – It is hereby declared that the State values the dignity
of every human person and guarantees the respect of individual rights. In pursuit of this
policy, the State shall give highest priority to the enactment of measures and
development of programs that will promote human dignity, protect the people from any
threat of violence and exploitation, eliminate trafficking in persons, and mitigate
pressures for involuntary migration and servitude of persons, not only to support
trafficked persons but more importantly, to ensure their recovery, rehabilitation and
reintegration into the mainstream of society.
"It shall be a State policy to recognize the equal rights and inherent human dignity of
women and men as enshrined in the United Nations Universal Declaration on Human
Rights, United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women, United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, United Nations
Convention on the Protection of Migrant Workers and their Families, United Nations
Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime Including its Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and all
other relevant and universally accepted human rights instruments and other
international conventions to which the Philippines is a signatory."
Section 3. Section 3 of Republic Act No. 9208 is hereby amended to read as follows:
"SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. – As used in this Act:
"(a) Trafficking in Persons – refers to the recruitment, obtaining, hiring,
providing, offering, transportation, transfer, maintaining, harboring, or receipt of
persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge, within or across
national borders by means of threat, or use of force, or other forms of coercion,
abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position, taking advantage of
the vulnerability of the person, or, the giving or receiving of payments or
benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person
for the purpose of exploitation which includes at a minimum, the exploitation or