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The Philippines currently has no law explicitly criminalizing necrophilia or sexual acts with a corpse, but a bill filed by North Cotabato 3rd district Rep. Ma. Alana Samantha Taliño Santos seeks to change that. 

Santos filed in the current 19th Congress House Bill (HB) No.9598, or the proposed Act defining the crime of cadaver desecration, providing penalties therefor and for other purposes. 

"This bill aims to impose criminal and civil liabiltiies on offenders guilty of desecrating cadavers," read HB No.9598. 

"The penalty of prision mayor shall be imposed upon any person who shall commit the crime of desecration of human cadaver as defined in this Act," it added. 

The measure defines desecration of cadavers as any act committed after the death of a human being, including, but not limited to dismemberment, disfigurement, mutilation, burning, or any act committed to cause the dead body to be devoured, scattered, or dissipated. 

It goes on to provide more specific language for the banned acts, one of them being "having sexual contact or activity with the dead", or necrophilia. 

The Santos bill further lists down the following prohibitions: dumping of cadavers, including infants and fetuses, with the intent of abandoning the cadaver; mutilating the cadaver, including infants and fetuses, except for embalming and medical purposes; destruction of tombs and other private or public burial sites; and taking from the grave the personal property buried with the dead including; but not limited to, the coffin, clothing, and jewelry. 

The bill is also seeking to outlaw the burying the dead, including infants and fetuses, without securing approval and appropriate permits from local health units; selling the cadaver onducting any medical study or experiment on the dead, including infants and fetuses without securing approval and appropriate permit from local health units. 

Santos stressed in her proposed stature that Congress is mandated to give the highest priority to the enactment of measures that protect and enhance the right of all people to human dignity. 

"The right to human dignity extends to the right of dignity of dead bodies. There have been instances in the past, some of which were highlighted in news reports, of dead bodies being dumped in inappropriate places," she said. 

"In keeping with our mandate to protect and promote human dignity, there is an imperative need to supplement the dearth in laws by penalizing the crime of cadaver desecration as a separate crime," added Santos. 

The measure is pending before the House Committee on Justice.