Short answer. It depends on who is holding it. Under Article 1754, checked baggage — not in your personal custody — is governed by the cargo rules for common carriers, so the carrier owes extraordinary diligence over it. Baggage you keep with you is instead governed by the hotel-keeper rules, a different and generally lighter standard of responsibility.
What the law says
As to other baggage, the rules in articles 1998 and 2000 to 2003 concerning the responsibility of hotel-keepers shall be applicable.
Civil Code, Article 1754 — Passenger's Baggage. Read the full provision →
Two kinds of baggage, two sets of rules
Article 1754 splits a passenger's baggage in two according to who has custody of it. The provisions of articles 1733 to 1753 shall apply to the passenger's baggage which is not in his personal custody or in that of his employee. As to other baggage, the rules in articles 1998 and 2000 to 2003 concerning the responsibility of hotel-keepers shall be applicable. So the suitcase you hand over to be stowed in the cargo hold is treated like any other cargo, while the bag on your lap or in the overhead rack falls under a different regime borrowed from the law on innkeepers.
Checked baggage: full cargo protection
Baggage that is not in your personal custody — handed to the bus conductor to store, checked in at a ferry or airline counter, loaded into the hold — is placed squarely under the rules for the carriage of goods. That is a strong protection: the carrier owes extraordinary diligence over it, is presumed negligent if it is lost or damaged, and can escape only through one of the recognised excusing causes. In practical terms, once you have surrendered a bag into the carrier's keeping, you are in the same position as a shipper of cargo, and the same demanding standard applies.
Hand-carried baggage: the hotel-keeper rules
Baggage you keep with you is treated differently, under the rules written for hotel-keepers and their guests' effects. That regime is real responsibility, not none — a carrier can still be answerable for such baggage — but it is not the extraordinary diligence owed over cargo. Because the item never left your control, the law expects you to look after it, and the carrier's duty is correspondingly narrower. The dividing line is custody: the moment a bag passes from your hands into the carrier's, it moves from the hotel-keeper side of Article 1754 to the cargo side, and the protection changes with it.
Which rule fits your loss
When a bag goes missing, the first thing to establish is which side of the line it was on. Was it in the hold or the conductor's keeping, or was it beside you? That single fact selects the applicable regime and, with it, how much the carrier must answer for and what you must show. Keep whatever proves custody — a baggage check or claim tag for a checked bag, and for hand-carried items, the circumstances of how it was lost. The label the carrier puts on it does not control; who actually held the bag does.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Sulpicio Lines, Inc. vs. Napoleon Sesante, et al, G.R. No. 172682, July 27, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →