Policy and objectives
- The State must ensure the safety of children while transported in any form of motor vehicle (Section 2).
- The State recognizes children’s rights to assistance, proper care, and special protection from neglect, abuse, and conditions prejudicial to development, including exposure to safety risks aboard motor vehicles (Section 2).
- The Act requires, regulates, promotes, and informs the public on the use of child restraint systems to prevent traffic-related deaths and injuries, using international standards accepted by the United Nations (Section 2).
- The State directs the study and determination of appropriate safety measures for children transported in public utility vehicles (Section 2).
Key definitions and scope
- “Adult” means any person eighteen (18) years old and above (Section 3(a)).
- “Child” means any person twelve (12) years old and below (Section 3(b)).
- “Covered vehicle” means any private motor vehicle or public motor vehicle upon determination by the Department of Transportation (DOTr) in accordance with Section 12 (Section 3(c)).
- “Motor vehicle” covers both private and public motor vehicles but does not include tricycle and motorcycle (Section 3(d)).
- “Private motor vehicle” includes motor vehicles owned by individuals and juridical persons for private use; motor vehicles owned by the National Government or its agencies/instrumentalities/political subdivisions (including GOCCs or their subsidiaries) for official use; and diplomatic vehicles (Section 3(e)).
- “Public motor vehicle” refers to public utility vehicle or vehicle for hire (Section 3(f)).
- “Driver” means the individual operating a motor vehicle (Section 3(g)).
- “Child Restraint System” means a device approved in accordance with Section 6, capable of accommodating a child occupant in a sitting or supine position, designed to diminish the risk of injury in a collision or abrupt deceleration by limiting the mobility of the child’s body (Section 3(h)).
Mandatory child restraint rules
- It is unlawful for the driver of a covered vehicle not to properly secure, at all times while the engine is running or while transporting on any road, street, or highway, a child in a child restraint system (Section 4).
- The child restraint system must be used unless the child is at least one hundred fifty (150) centimeters or fifty-nine (59) inches in height and is properly secured using the regular seat belt (Section 4).
- The child restraint system must be appropriate to the child’s age, height, and weight, and approved under Section 6 (Section 4).
- The Section 4 child restraint requirement does not apply when using the child restraint system would put the child in greater danger, such as medical emergencies and other analogous circumstances prescribed in the IRR (Section 4(2)).
- At no instance may a child be left unaccompanied by an adult in a motor vehicle, even if the child is secured in a child restraint system (Section 4).
Children in front seats
- No child twelve (12) years and below may sit in a front seat of a motor vehicle with a running engine or while being transported on any road, street, or highway unless the child meets the height requirement in Section 4 and is properly secured using the regular seat belt in the front seat (Section 5).
Safety standards and product approvals
- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) must use standards set forth in United Nations Regulation 44 and United National Regulation 129 (including evolving standards and other acceptable international standards) when approving or disapproving child restraint systems to be manufactured, sold, distributed, and used in the Philippines (Section 6).
- These standards must be periodically updated based on current United Nations Regulations concerning child restraint systems (Section 6).
- Manufacturers, importers, distributors, and sellers must secure from the Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) a Philippine Standards (PS) mark license or an Import Clearance Certificate (ICC) license prior to marketing, sale, and distribution (Section 6).
- The BPS must issue periodically a list of child restraint system manufacturers, importers, and distributors, and the brands that pass its standards, and publish the list in a newspaper of general circulation or on its website (Section 6).
- Child restraint systems acquired prior to this Act’s effectivity may be used if the device is not expired (Section 6).
Prohibition on substandard or expired units
- It is unlawful for any person, company, partnership, sole proprietorship, manufacturer, distributor, and/or importer to manufacture, use, import, sell, distribute, donate, lease, advertise, promote, or otherwise market the use of substandard or expired child restraint systems (Section 7).
Training and certification program
- The DOTr and the DTI must formulate and implement a certification training program for product inspectors, law enforcers, manufacturers, distributors, and sellers on regulation, installation, use, maintenance, and inspection of child restraint systems, as prescribed by the IRR (Section 8).
Public utility vehicle child safety study
- The DOTr must conduct a study and recommend to Congress the use of child restraint systems in public utility vehicles such as jeepneys, buses (including school buses), taxis, vans, coasters, accredited/affiliated service vehicles of transportation network companies, and all other motor vehicles used for public transport (Section 9).
- If the DOTr determines after study that child restraint systems are not applicable in certain public utility vehicles, it must recommend to Congress other safety measures and/or regulations for safe and secure transportation of children in such vehicles (Section 9).
- The DOTr study must be conducted within one (1) year from the effectivity of this Act (Section 9).
Penalties for violations
- Driver penalties (Sections 4 and 5):
- First offense: PHP 1,000.00
- Second offense: PHP 2,000.00
- Third and succeeding offenses: PHP 5,000.00 and suspension of the driver’s license for one (1) year (Section 10(a)).
- Manufacturers/distributors/importers/retailers/sellers (Sections 6 and 7): Violation results in a fine of not less than PHP 50,000.00 but not more than PHP 100,000.00 for each and every child restraint system product manufactured, distributed, imported, and/or sold (Section 10(b)).
- These seller/product penalties are imposed without prejudice to other penalties under Republic Act No. 7394 (the “Consumer Act of the Philippines”) (Section 10(b)).
- Driver penalties for allowing substandard/expired or unmarked systems: If a driver allows the use of substandard and/or expired child restraint systems, or permits child restraint systems that do not bear the PS mark or the ICC sticker and certificate, penalties are: PHP 1,000.00 (first offense), PHP 3,000.00 (second offense), and PHP 5,000.00 plus driver’s license suspension for one (1) year (third and succeeding offenses) (Section 10(c)).
- Tampering/forgery/imitation of PS mark or ICC stickers: Tampering, alteration, forgery, and imitation of the PS mark or ICC stickers is punished by a fine of not less than PHP 50,000.00 but not more than PHP 100,000.00 for each and every child restraint system product (Section 10(d)).
- This mark/sticker penalty is imposed without prejudice to other penalties under Republic Act No. 7394 (Section 10(d)).
- After publication, the DOTr is empowered to increase or adjust the fines prescribed in Section 10 once every five (5) years by an amount not exceeding 10% of existing rates (Section 10(d)).
Public information and IEC campaign
- The DOTr, the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), the Department of Health (DOH), the Department of Education (DepEd), and private agencies and organizations must undertake a regular nationwide Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign within six (6) months from the passage of the Act (Section 11(a)).
- The IEC campaign must include information on the proper installation, use, and maintenance of child restraint systems (Section 11(a)).
- The DOTr may call upon government agencies, including the Philippine National Police (PNP) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to support implementation of the Act (Section 11(b)).
Implementation review, IRR, and phased enforcement
- The DOTr must conduct and submit to Congress a periodic review on implementation at the end of the third year from the date of effectivity and every year thereafter (Section 12).
- The DOTr, in consultation with the DTI, DOH, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), PNP-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC), and other concerned agencies and stakeholders, must promulgate the IRR on child restraint systems within six (6) months from effectivity of the Act (Section 13).
- The IRR must cover, among others:
- Motor vehicles covered under the Act (Section 13(a))
- Standards and kinds of child restraint systems based on UN Regulations 44 and 129 (Section 13(b))
- Compatibility of child restraint systems to motor vehicles in the market (Section 13(c))
- Proper installation and positioning of child restraint systems in the vehicle (Section 13(d))
- The certification training program under Section 8 (Section 13(e))
- Regulation of manufacture, importation, and distribution (Section 13(f))
- Authorities responsible for monitoring and evaluation of implementation and compliance (Section 13(g))
- Phases of implementation (Section 13(h)).
- Mandatory compliance is enforced only one (1) year after the effectivity of the IRR (Section 15).
Appropriations and funding use
- The initial amount necessary for implementation must be charged against the current appropriation of the DOTr (Section 14).
- Fines and fees collected from enforcement of the Seat Belt Law may be used to augment the initial funding requirement for this Act (Section 14).
- Fines and fees collected in enforcement of this Act must be used exclusively for its implementation (Section 14).
- Sums necessary for continued implementation must be included in the annual General Appropriations Act (Section 14).
Amendments, separability, and repeal
- Section 5 on the age of children prohibited to sit in front seat of Republic Act No. 8750 and Section 11 thereof on the use of special car seats are amended (Section 17).
- All other laws, decrees, executive orders, rules and regulations, issuances, or parts thereof inconsistent with this Act are repealed or amended accordingly (Section 17).
- If any provision or part is held invalid or unconstitutional, the remainder of the law or provision not affected remains valid and subsisting (Section 16).