Short answer. Not if they arise from the voluntary submission program. Section 60 makes the judicial and medical records of a drug dependent under that program confidential and provides they shall not be used against him for any purpose — with one narrow exception, counting how many times the person voluntarily submitted for treatment.
What the law says
Judicial and medical records of drug dependents under the voluntary submission program shall be confidential and shall not be used against him for any purpose
RA 9165, Section 60 — Confidential Voluntary Submission Records. Read the full provision →
The confidentiality rule
The section states that judicial and medical records of drug dependents under the voluntary submission program shall be confidential and shall not be used against him for any purpose. Both kinds of record are covered — the judicial record of the proceedings and the medical record of the treatment. The protection is deliberately wide: the records may not be used against the person for any purpose, not merely in a criminal trial. The point is to keep a person's decision to come forward for treatment from being turned into evidence or a disadvantage against them later.
The single exception
There is one carve-out, and it is narrow. The records may be used only to determine how many times the person — whether by himself, or through a parent, spouse, guardian or relative within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity — voluntarily submitted for confinement, treatment and rehabilitation, or was committed to a Center under the program. That count exists because the law treats first and repeated submissions differently. Outside of establishing that number, the records remain sealed against use. The exception does not open the records up for any wider evidentiary purpose.
What the protection covers, and its limit
The shield attaches because the person entered the voluntary submission program — it is tied to that route, not granted at large. It is not a general amnesty for whatever the person may have done, and it does not by itself resolve the admissibility of evidence gathered outside the program by independent means. The distinction that decides a dispute is the source of the record. Material generated within the program is what the section protects; a document that merely mentions treatment but originates elsewhere is a different question and has to be assessed on its own footing.
What to check, and next steps
Whether a particular record falls within Section 60 depends on whether it was produced under the voluntary submission program, which is a factual question about how the person entered treatment and under what authority. That is not always obvious from the face of a document. Anyone worried that treatment records might surface in a case should have the origin of those records, and any attempt to introduce them, reviewed with counsel, because the protection turns on where the record came from rather than on how it happens to be labelled or who currently holds it.