Short answer. The child is placed under the protective custody of the DSWD immediately. Section 28 does not wait for a hearing, a finding or a custody ruling — the offended party goes into protective custody at once, and the custody proceedings that follow are governed by Presidential Decree No. 603.
What the law says
The offended party shall be immediately placed under the protective custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development pursuant to Executive Order No. 56, series of 1986.
RA 7610, Section 28 — Protective Custody Of Child. Read the full provision →
What the law says
In the regular performance of this function, the officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development shall be free from any administrative, civil or criminal liability.
RA 7610, Section 28 — Protective Custody Of Child. Read the full provision →
Immediately means immediately
The offended party shall be immediately placed under the protective custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development pursuant to Executive Order No. 56, series of 1986. There is no condition attached to it — no requirement that the allegation first be substantiated, no discretion written into the sentence, no waiting for the accused to be arraigned. The reason is structural rather than dramatic. In a large share of child abuse cases the person accused lives in the same house as the child, so leaving the child where he is until the case matures leaves him with the person the case is about.
The clause protecting the social worker
The section then adds something unusual: In the regular performance of this function, the officer of the Department of Social Welfare and Development shall be free from any administrative, civil or criminal liability. Taking a child out of a household is precisely the act that attracts retaliatory complaints, and an officer weighing a possible case against herself will hesitate at exactly the moment hesitation is most costly. The immunity is tied to the regular performance of the function, so it protects the officer doing the job the section assigns — not conduct outside it.
What protective custody is not
It is not an award of custody, and parents frequently read it as one. It decides nothing about who will raise the child, makes no finding that anyone abused him, and is not permanent. The section says custody proceedings shall be in accordance with the provisions of Presidential Decree No. 603, which means the placement enters a framework where it is examined rather than simply standing. Anyone whose child has been taken into protective custody should be establishing which office holds the child and what proceeding has been commenced, and should have counsel for that proceeding rather than for the criminal case alone.
Why the Act moves before it proves
The same assumption runs through the statute's penalties. Section 31 raises the penalty to its maximum where the perpetrator is an ascendant, parent, guardian, stepparent or collateral relative within the second degree of consanguinity or affinity — the Act expects offenders to be found inside the family and treats that as an aggravation rather than an anomaly. Protective custody is the procedural counterpart of that expectation. It is the mechanism that lets the law act on a risk it has not yet proved, which is also why it must be temporary and reviewable to be defensible.