Short answer. Fifteen days. The statute requires the order of discharge or of confinement to issue not later than fifteen days from the filing of the petition, and it says so in any event — the deadline covers the contested cases as much as the straightforward ones, with everything else fitted inside it.
What the law says
In any event, the order of discharge or order of confinement or commitment shall be issued not later than fifteen (15) days from the filing of the appropriate petition.
RA 9165, Section 61 — Compulsory Confinement Of Drug Dependents. Read the full provision →
What the law says
the court, by an order, shall immediately fix a date for the hearing
RA 9165, Section 61 — Compulsory Confinement Of Drug Dependents. Read the full provision →
Fifteen days, and everything happens inside them
In any event, the order of discharge or order of confinement or commitment shall be issued not later than fifteen (15) days from the filing of the appropriate petition. That is the whole proceeding, not the last step of it. Within the same fortnight the court must fix and hold a hearing, have its order served on the respondent and on whoever has charge of him, obtain examinations by two physicians accredited by the Board, and weigh whatever evidence is offered. The pace is why the section opens by directing that the court, by an order, shall immediately fix a date for the hearing.
What the clock is measured from
The period runs from the filing of the appropriate petition, which is rarely the day the family first raised the problem. The petition itself belongs to the Board or a person it authorises, and Section 65 places the preparation of petitions in proceedings under this Act on the provincial or city prosecutor — so the interval before filing has no statutory limit at all, and in practice it is where most of the waiting happens. The date stamped on the petition is therefore the date to obtain from the record. Nothing before it counts against the fifteen days.
Two outcomes only
The section leaves the court no third disposition to reach for. What must issue within the period is an order of discharge or an order of confinement or commitment — there is no provision for holding the petition open, deferring for further assessment, or resetting the clock because a hearing did not finish. The phrase in any event is doing that work: it forecloses the ordinary reasons a case slips, because what the petition asks for is a person's confinement, and a proceeding that can take an indefinite time to answer that question has already imposed part of the answer.
What fifteen days is not
It is not the length of the confinement. The deadline governs when the court must rule, and says nothing about how long treatment then lasts; commitment is to a centre under the supervision of the DOH, and the duration is a matter for the treatment regime rather than this section. Nor is it a promise about the calendar around the case — service, medical scheduling and the availability of an accredited centre all sit outside it. If you are tracking one of these proceedings, the two dates worth writing down are the date of filing and the date of the order.
Related provisions
- RA 9165, Section 61 — Compulsory Confinement Of Drug Dependents
- RA 9165, Section 65 — Prosecutor's Duty In Proceedings
- RA 9165, Section 75 — Treatment And Rehabilitation Centers