Short answer. Yes. The Code makes it an offence for a person having charge of a minor's rearing or education to deliver him to a public institution or to other persons without the consent of the one who entrusted the child, or, if that person is absent, without the consent of the proper authorities.
What the law says
shall deliver said minor to a public institution or other persons, without the consent of the one who entrusted such child to his care or in the absence of the latter, without the consent of the proper authorities
Revised Penal Code, Article 277 — Abandonment Of Minor By Custodian. Read the full provision →
The consent the article requires is a particular person's
The provision reaches anyone having charge of the rearing or education of a minor who shall deliver said minor to a public institution or other persons, without the consent of the one who entrusted such child to his care or in the absence of the latter, without the consent of the proper authorities. The consent that counts is that of the person who placed the child with you. Not the child's, however old or willing he is; not the receiving person's, however respectable; and not your own assessment that the arrangement is a good one. Where that person cannot be reached, the article substitutes the consent of the proper authorities, not your judgment.
What the article means by delivering the child
The word doing the work is deliver. What is contemplated is giving the minor over into somebody else's keeping — placing him with an institution, or handing him to another person to have him. That is not the same as the ordinary incidents of looking after a child: sending him to school, leaving him briefly with a relative, or allowing a stay that the person who entrusted him would recognise as part of the arrangement. Where an act falls on the line between a temporary arrangement and a delivery is a question of fact, decided on what was agreed and what was actually done.
The other half of the same article
The provision has a second limb aimed at parents, punishing those who neglect their children by failing to give them the education their station in life requires and their financial condition permits. It sits in the same article because both limbs concern a duty of care towards a minor being abandoned in substance rather than in form. If a complaint has been made about a child placed with you, read both parts, since a complainant may frame the grievance under either, and the elements of the two are quite different.
How to keep this from becoming a dispute
The protection is documentary and it is easy. Get the consent of the person who entrusted the child in writing, dated, and describing what is being agreed to; keep the messages in which the arrangement was made; and where that person cannot be reached, do not improvise — obtain the consent the article points to instead. If a complaint has already been filed, gather the record of the original arrangement and of every communication about the handover, and take it to counsel before responding directly to the parents.
Related provisions
- Revised Penal Code, Article 276 — Abandoning A Minor
- Revised Penal Code, Article 277 — Abandonment Of Minor By Custodian