Prescription—often described as “the law on deadlines”—is a core concept in Philippine legal practice. It determines when a right may be enforced, when ownership may be acquired through time, and when criminal liability or penalties may no longer be pursued. Because missing a prescriptive period can permanently bar a claim or prosecution, understanding prescription is both a substantive and practical necessity.

This article explains the major kinds of prescription in the Philippine setting, how periods are computed, how they are interrupted or suspended, common prescriptive periods across fields, and practical pointers.

1) What “Prescription” Means in Philippine Law

In Philippine law, “prescription” broadly refers to the effect of the passage of time on rights and obligations. It appears in three major forms:

Extinctive prescription (prescription of actions/claims) Time bars the filing of a case to enforce a right (e.g., collection of a debt, damages, annulment).
Acquisitive prescription (prescription as a mode of acquiring ownership) Ownership or other real rights may be acquired through possession over time under legal conditions.
Prescription in criminal law
- Prescription of crimes (criminal action): after a period, the State can no longer prosecute.
- Prescription of penalties: after a period, the State can no longer enforce a sentence if the convict evades service and time lapses under the rules.

Philippine prescription rules come from multiple sources (notably the Civil Code, the Revised Penal Code, procedural rules, and special statutes). Always identify which law governs because different areas use different counting rules and periods.

2) Why the Law Imposes Prescriptive Periods

Prescription serves several policies:

Stability and peace: disputes must end at some point.
Fairness to defendants: evidence and memories degrade over time.
Encouragement of diligence: rights should be asserted promptly.
Orderly administration of justice: courts avoid stale claims.

At the same time, Philippine law recognizes that some rights are too important to time-bar, so certain actions are imprescriptible (explained later).

3) The Two Civil-Law Branches: Extinctive vs Acquisitive

A. Extinctive Prescription (Prescription of Actions)

This is what most people mean by “prescription”: the deadline to file a case.

Typical examples:

Collecting unpaid loans
Suing for damages from negligence
Challenging contracts (annulment, rescission)
Recovering property through certain actions

Key idea: the right may still exist morally or economically, but the court remedy is barred once prescription sets in (with some exceptions).

B. Acquisitive Prescription (Ownership Through Time)

Acquisitive prescription allows a possessor to become owner if the law’s requirements are met, usually involving:

Possession that is public, peaceful, and uninterrupted
Possession in the concept of an owner (not mere tolerance, not a tenant)
Passage of required time
For ordinary prescription, typically good faith and just title

Crucial limitation: Certain property cannot be acquired by prescription (e.g., property of public dominion; and as a rule, land under the Torrens system has special protections).

4) When Does the Prescriptive Period Start Running?

In civil cases, the prescriptive period generally begins when the cause of action accrues—meaning when the plaintiff has the right to sue, commonly when:

A breach occurs (e.g., nonpayment on due date),
Damage is suffered (e.g., injury from negligence),
A right is violated (e.g., wrongful act),
A condition for suit happens (e.g., demand required and demand made).

In criminal cases (prescription of crimes), the period typically begins:

From the day the crime is discovered by the offended party, authorities, or their agents (a key rule particularly for offenses not immediately known), subject to specific doctrines and the governing statute.

Because “accrual” and “discovery” can be contested, identifying the correct start date is often the main battleground in prescription disputes.

5) Interruption, Suspension, and Tolling

A. Interruption in Civil Cases (Common Civil Code Rule)

Civil prescription is commonly interrupted by:

Filing of the action in court
Written extrajudicial demand by the creditor/claimant
Written acknowledgment of the debt/obligation by the debtor/obligor

These are frequently litigated. For example:

A demand letter can interrupt prescription if it is a proper written demand and provable.
A partial payment or acknowledgment may matter, but the safest interruption evidence is typically written.

B. Suspension / Exceptions (Civil)

Some situations delay running or affect computation (e.g., certain legal disabilities or special relationships). In practice, courts examine:

Whether the claimant had legal capacity and opportunity to sue,
Whether the law creates an exception (e.g., family relations, trust relations, special statutes).

Because “suspension” rules can be technical and fact-specific, the governing statute and jurisprudential doctrines matter.

C. Interruption in Criminal Cases

For crimes under the Revised Penal Code framework, prescription is generally interrupted by the filing of the appropriate complaint or information that initiates proceedings, subject to doctrinal specifics (including whether proceedings genuinely commence and whether the filing is in the proper venue/office under applicable rules).

For special laws, the rule may be found in the special statute itself or in general special-law prescription principles.

6) Computation: How to Count Time Properly

Practical counting rules that often matter:

Count in calendar years/months/days depending on the period stated.
Watch for issues on:
- Date of accrual/discovery
- Date of interruption (filing date, demand date, acknowledgment date)
- Whether a filing was in the correct forum (some wrong filings may not interrupt)
If the last day falls on a non-working day, procedural rules and doctrines on timeliness can become relevant depending on context and forum rules; practitioners often file before the deadline to avoid edge disputes.

Best practice: compute in writing, attach a timeline, and preserve proof of demands and filing stamps.

7) Common Extinctive Prescription Periods in Philippine Practice (Civil/Remedial)

Below are widely encountered periods in Philippine civil litigation. Exact application depends on the specific cause of action and governing law.

A. Contracts and Obligations (Typical Civil Code Periods)

Common baseline periods:

Written contracts / obligations created by law / judgments: often encountered as longer prescriptive periods.
Oral contracts / quasi-contracts: often shorter than written contracts.
Actions based on injury to rights, quasi-delict (torts): commonly 4 years in many standard scenarios.

Because classification disputes are common (Is it written contract? tort? injury to rights? implied trust?), correct labeling is critical.

B. Annulment, Rescission, Reformation, Related Remedies

Actions involving defective consent, fraud, mistake, or rescissible arrangements often have shorter windows and specific accrual rules (e.g., from discovery of fraud, from end of intimidation, from reaching majority, etc., depending on the remedy).

C. Recovery of Possession / Ejectment (Key Practical Rule)

Forcible entry and unlawful detainer are governed by short prescriptive periods (commonly one year in core ejectment concepts), and they must be filed in the proper first-level court with the correct allegations and timing triggers (date of entry vs date of last demand/notice).

Mixing up ejectment with other real actions can be fatal.

D. Actions Involving Land, Titles, and Trust Concepts

Property litigation is where Philippine prescription becomes especially intricate:

Registered land (Torrens) has strong protections; as a general principle, the registered owner’s title is not lost by ordinary prescription in the same way as unregistered land.
However, particular actions (e.g., reconveyance based on certain trust theories or fraud) may be governed by prescriptive periods depending on the nature of the claim and when the cause of action accrued or fraud was discovered.
Courts often distinguish:
- Action to recover ownership vs action to reconvey
- Express trust vs implied/constructive trust
- Void vs voidable documents
- Direct attack vs collateral attack on title

Because outcomes depend heavily on pleadings and facts, this area requires careful case-specific analysis.

8) Acquisitive Prescription: Ownership Through Possession (Civil Code Framework)

A. Ordinary vs Extraordinary Prescription

Ordinary acquisitive prescription typically requires:
- Just title (a mode that appears valid, though it may be defective)
- Good faith
- Possession for the period required by law
Extraordinary acquisitive prescription generally:
- Does not require good faith or just title
- Requires a longer period of possession

B. Movables vs Immovables

Philippine law sets different periods for movables and immovables, and also treats good faith differently in some contexts (e.g., acquisition of movables in good faith may have additional protective doctrines).

C. Property Not Subject to Prescription

As a general rule, acquisitive prescription does not operate against:

Property of public dominion (roads, rivers, etc.)
Other categories declared outside commerce or otherwise imprescriptible by law
Certain protected lands and regimes under specific statutes

For lands of the State, the classification (alienable/disposable vs forest/mineral; patrimonial vs public dominion) can determine whether prescription can ever apply.

9) Criminal Prescription (Philippine Criminal Law)

Criminal prescription has two major forms:

A. Prescription of Crimes (State’s Right to Prosecute)

The time limit depends primarily on:

The penalty prescribed by law for the offense (for crimes under the Revised Penal Code),
Or the special law governing the offense (many special laws have their own rules, or rely on general special-law prescription principles).

Under the Revised Penal Code approach, crimes with heavier penalties prescribe later than those with lighter penalties.

A core concept is that prescription is generally counted from discovery and can be interrupted by the institution of proceedings under the governing rules.

B. Prescription of Penalties (State’s Right to Enforce Sentence)

This applies when:

A person is convicted by final judgment,
Then evades service of sentence,
And enough time passes under the rules for the penalty to prescribe.

Interruption may occur by:

Capture,
Voluntary surrender,
Or other legally recognized events.

10) Special Fields: Tax, Labor, and Administrative Cases

Prescription rules in these areas are often statute-specific and procedurally technical.

A. Tax

Tax law uses distinct prescriptive periods for:

Assessment (the government’s time to assess)
Collection (the government’s time to collect after assessment)
With different rules for false/fraudulent returns, non-filing, waivers, and suspensions.

Because tax prescription can involve formal requirements (e.g., valid notices, waivers, dates of filing), “deadline disputes” are common.

B. Labor

Labor-related claims often have their own prescriptive periods depending on the nature of the cause:

Money claims,
Illegal dismissal and related claims,
Unfair labor practice,
Claims arising from employer-employee relations vs independent civil actions.

The classification of the claim (labor-based vs civil-based) can affect both forum and prescriptive period.

C. Administrative and Professional Discipline

Administrative cases may have:

Statutory periods,
Or special doctrines, depending on the agency, nature of offense, and public interest involved.

Some administrative proceedings are treated differently from civil actions for purposes of strict prescription analysis.

11) Imprescriptible Actions and Rights (No Deadline)

Certain actions are generally treated as imprescriptible or not barred by ordinary extinctive prescription, for example (depending on the governing law and doctrine):

Certain actions involving status and civil registry corrections under applicable rules,
Certain actions to declare void arrangements (as distinguished from voidable ones), though related remedies (like recovery based on implied trust) may still face prescriptive limits,
Certain property claims where the law expressly provides imprescriptibility.

“Imprescriptible” does not mean “always easy”: other defenses may apply (laches, estoppel, evidentiary burdens, jurisdictional constraints).

12) Prescription vs Laches (Equity)

Philippine practice often pairs prescription and laches, but they are distinct:

Prescription is statutory: a fixed legal deadline.
Laches is equitable: delay that is unreasonable and prejudicial, even if within a statutory period (in some contexts), though courts generally do not use laches to defeat clear statutory commands, and its application depends on doctrine and the nature of the action.

In litigation, defendants commonly plead both.

13) Litigation Mechanics: How Prescription Is Raised and Proven

A. In Civil Cases

Prescription is typically raised as an affirmative defense.
If not raised properly and timely (depending on procedural posture), it can be deemed waived, except in limited situations where it is evident from the pleadings and records and may be considered by the court under applicable procedural rules.

Evidence often centers on:

Date of accrual,
Dates of demands,
Dates of filings,
Proof of interruption events.

B. In Criminal Cases

Prescription may be raised through procedural remedies (often early, such as a motion to quash when appropriate), but practice varies depending on whether prescription is apparent on the face of the information/records and the governing doctrine.

Because the consequences are severe (case dismissal), courts scrutinize the legal basis and factual timeline.

14) Practical Guidance: How Not to Lose on Prescription

Classify the cause of action correctly. Many prescription losses happen because a claim was framed as the wrong type (e.g., contract vs quasi-delict; ejectment vs accion publiciana; reconveyance theory mismatch).
Build a timeline immediately. Identify: accrual/discovery date → interruption events → filing date.
Use written extrajudicial demands strategically (when allowed). Preserve proof: registry receipts, acknowledgments, email headers (where acceptable), affidavits of service.
File early; do not live on the last day. Edge cases invite disputes on counting, holidays, venue, and sufficiency of filing.
Beware of forum/venue mistakes. Some misfilings may not protect you from prescription depending on the governing rule.
Do not assume “imprescriptible.” Even when an action to declare something void may be imprescriptible, related relief (damages, reconveyance under certain theories) may still prescribe.

15) Quick Reference: The Questions That Decide Most Prescription Problems

When assessing any Philippine prescription issue, answer these in order:

What is the governing law? (Civil Code? RPC? special statute? tax/labor code? procedural rules?)
What exactly is the cause of action or offense?
When did it accrue or get discovered?
What is the applicable prescriptive period for that specific action/offense?
Was there interruption or suspension? (filing, written demand, acknowledgment, institution of proceedings, valid notices/waivers)
Was the case filed/proceedings instituted in the correct forum and manner?
Are there other time-based defenses? (laches, estoppel, waiver)

Conclusion

Prescription in Philippine law is not a single rule but a system: civil extinctive prescription (deadlines for lawsuits), civil acquisitive prescription (ownership through time), and criminal prescription (time limits to prosecute or enforce penalties), plus specialized regimes in tax, labor, property, and administrative practice. The outcome of many cases turns less on who is “right” and more on whether the claim was brought on time, in the correct form, and with provable interruption events.

If you want, paste a specific fact pattern (dates, documents, and what claim/offense is involved), and I can map it to a prescriptive-period analysis framework and produce a clean timeline and issue list.