Short answer. It does not follow that you cannot. The Act allows an application for a protection order to stand as an independent action, so it does not depend on a criminal case existing, and a permanent order is decided by the court hearing that application on the evidence presented to it.

What the law says

It may be filed as an independent action or as incidental relief in any civil or criminal case the subject matter or issues thereof partakes of a violence as described in this Act.

RA 9262, Section 11 — How To Apply. Read the full provision →

The Act keeps the two tracks apart

That sentence is the structural answer. An application for a protection order can be brought as an action in its own right; it does not have to be attached to a criminal case, and it is not an accessory to one. The Act carries the same idea elsewhere — where it deals with the consequences of violating an order, it says those consequences are without prejudice to any other criminal or civil action the offended party may file for the same acts. Separate proceedings, separate outcomes.

The permanent order is decided in its own proceeding

A permanent order is one issued by the court after notice and hearing, and the Act says what that hearing works on: where the respondent fails to appear despite proper notice, the court allows the applicant to present evidence ex parte and renders judgment on the basis of the evidence presented. What is before that court is what decides it. No page can tell you how a particular application will be decided, and a dismissal elsewhere is not written into the Act as an answer either way.

What the court may still hear

The evidentiary door is wider than people expect. The court is directed to allow the introduction of any history of abusive conduct by the respondent, even where it was not directed at the applicant or at the person on whose behalf the application is made. So material that never featured in the criminal case, or that concerned other people entirely, is not shut out of this proceeding. The hearing is also to be conducted in one day so far as possible, so it is worth having that material organised before it.

Why the reason for the dismissal matters to your lawyer

Dismissals happen for very different reasons — a witness who could not attend, a filing defect, a finding on the merits — and they are not interchangeable. That is the first thing counsel will want to see, along with what evidence exists independently of that case. If you cannot afford a lawyer, ask for one in the application itself: on such a request the court is directed to have the Public Attorney's Office represent you, and being unable to reach family or conjugal resources qualifies you for that.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.