Short answer. Very few. The Code names the right to demand a right of way and the action to abate a public or private nuisance as not extinguished by prescription, adding that others are specified elsewhere in it. Everything else runs on a period, so assume yours does.
What the law says
The following rights, among others specified elsewhere in this Code, are not extinguished by prescription: (1) To demand a right of way, regulated in article 649; (2) To bring an action to abate a public or private nuisance.
Civil Code, Article 1143 — Rights That Never Prescribe. Read the full provision →
The two the article names
Article 1143 is short enough to read whole: the following rights, among others specified elsewhere in this Code, are not extinguished by prescription: (1) To demand a right of way, regulated in article 649; (2) To bring an action to abate a public or private nuisance. What the two have in common is that neither responds to a past event. They answer to a situation that is still happening. That is the thread worth holding on to, because it explains why the list is so short and why most claims people hope are on it are not.
Why a continuing condition is treated differently
An estate that is surrounded by other properties without adequate outlet to a public highway is landlocked today, not merely on the day it was subdivided. Article 649 gives its owner the right to demand a right of way through the neighbouring estates after payment of the proper indemnity, and that need does not become stale by being endured. A nuisance is the same: it is not an injury that happened once but a condition being maintained. Prescription bars actions that have gone unasserted; it is a poor fit for a wrong that renews itself daily.
The list is open, but not to argument
The words among others specified elsewhere in this Code mean the article is not the complete inventory — other provisions declare particular rights imprescriptible. What they do not mean is that a right joins the list because it feels fundamental or because the injustice is grave. Membership comes from a provision saying so. If someone tells you a claim can never expire, the reasonable response is to ask which article says it, and to treat the absence of an answer as an answer.
The claims people wrongly believe are safe
Debts are the usual one. A loan does not stay actionable because the borrower keeps promising to pay; Article 1144 gives ten years upon a written contract and Article 1145 six upon an oral one, and only the interruptions in Article 1155 — a court filing, a written extrajudicial demand, or a written acknowledgment by the debtor — change the count. Actions to recover property run on periods too, thirty years for real actions over immovables under Article 1141. If a claim matters to you, date it and find its period rather than assuming it is waiting.
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.
- Juan B. Bañez, Jr. vs. Hon. Crisanto C. Concepcion, et al, G.R. No. 159508, August 29, 2012 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1141 — Real Actions Over Immovables — 30 Years
- Civil Code, Article 1155 — The Three Ways to Interrupt Prescription