Short answer. You have 120 days from when the indemnity bond was filed. Rule 39, Section 16 says a claim for damages over property taken or kept under execution cannot be enforced against the officer's indemnity bond unless the action is filed within one hundred twenty days from the date the bond was filed.
What the law says
No claim for damages for the taking or keeping of the property may be enforced against the bond unless the action therefor is filed within one hundred twenty days from the date of the filing of the bond
Rule 39, Section 16 — Proceedings where property claimed by third person. Read the full provision →
What the law says
prevent the judgment obligee from claiming damages in the same or a separate action against a third-party claimant who filed a frivolous or plainly spurious claim
Rule 39, Section 16 — Proceedings where property claimed by third person. Read the full provision →
A third-party claim after judgment, not before
Rule 39, Section 16 covers property that is levied on to satisfy a judgment that has already been rendered against someone else — the judgment obligor — after execution has been ordered. If the officer levies on property that actually belongs to a third person rather than the judgment obligor, that person can make an affidavit of title or right to possession, stating the grounds for the claim, and serve it on the officer making the levy, with a copy served on the judgment obligee who is trying to collect. Once served, the officer is no longer bound to keep the property unless the judgment obligee posts a bond, approved by the court, to indemnify the third-party claimant in an amount not less than the value of the property levied on.
The 120-day deadline once the officer keeps the property
If the judgment obligee posts that bond, the officer can keep levying and holding the property despite the third-party claim, and the officer becomes free of personal liability to the claimant for as long as the bond stays in place. What remains available to the claimant is a separate action for damages against the bond itself, and that action carries a firm deadline: it must be filed within one hundred twenty days from the date the bond was filed. The window runs from the bond's own filing date, not from the date of the levy, not from the date the affidavit was served, and it does not restart simply because the property continues to be held past that point.
What else stays open, and the government exception
Letting the 120-day period lapse does not close off every option — the rule keeps open the right to vindicate the claim to the property in a separate action, and it likewise preserves the judgment obligee's own right to claim damages against a third-party claimant whose claim turns out to be frivolous or plainly spurious. A special rule applies when the writ of execution is issued in favor of the Republic of the Philippines or an officer representing it: no bond needs to be filed at all, and if the sheriff or levying officer is sued for damages over that levy, the Solicitor General represents the officer, with any damages ultimately paid from appropriated government funds rather than from a bond.