Text of the provision
Art. 85. Provision relative to the corpse of the person executed and its burial. -Unless claimed by his family, the corpse of the culprit shall, upon the completion of the legal proceedings subsequent to the execution, be turned over to the institute of learning or scientific research first applying for it, for the purpose of study and investigation, provided that such institute shall take charge of the decent burial of the remains. Otherwise, the Director of Prisons shall order the burial of the body of the culprit at government expense, granting permission to be present thereat to the members of the family of the culprit and the friends of the latter. In no case shall the burial of the body of a person sentenced to death be held with pomp.
Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, Act No. 3815, as amended. Reproduced in full. The three sources consulted do not read identically here; the text above is the reading carried by two of the three, including the Official Gazette.
What this article means
A procedural provision on what happens to the body after an execution: unless the family claims it, it goes to the institute of learning or scientific research that first applies for it, and the burial may not be held with pomp. It is reproduced here for completeness of the Code; the death penalty itself can no longer be imposed.
Related provisions
- Article 83 — Suspension Of Death Sentence.
- Article 86 — Where Prison Terms Served.
On this text. This article is reproduced as the Revised Penal Code enacted it, verified word-for-word against two independent sources. Republic Act No. 10951 (2017) revised the penalty amounts in many other articles of this Code; where an amount appears below it is the figure this article itself carries.
The death penalty. This article still refers to the penalty of death. Republic Act No. 9346 (2006) prohibits the imposition of the death penalty in the Philippines. In its place the law imposes reclusión perpetua where the Revised Penal Code’s nomenclature is used, or life imprisonment where it is not. Read this article subject to that prohibition.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.