A bill filed at the House of Representatives seeks to cap the total cost of online loans and impose prison time on lenders who harass borrowers, adding criminal penalties to a set of consumer protections that currently exist only as regulatory rules.
House Bill 10366 was filed Wednesday by Akbayan Party-list Reps. Chel Diokno, Perci Cendaña, and Dadah Ismula, along with Dinagat Islands Rep. Kaka Bag-ao. In a statement issued Thursday, Diokno said the measure responds to a steady stream of complaints against abusive lending apps.
“Even before I became a lawmaker and until now, complaints against abusive online lending apps keep on coming at an alarming pace. These apps exploit borrowers through harassment, public humiliation, and other abusive collection practices,” Diokno said.
“No Filipino should have to endure these simply because they fell on hard times,” he added.
What the bill covers
The measure guarantees borrowers the right to transparent loan terms, data privacy, dignified debt collection, and full disclosure of loan costs. Lenders would be required to assess a borrower’s ability to repay before approving a loan and to obtain informed consent to all material loan terms and to the collection of personal data.
To prevent debt traps, HB 10366 caps the total amount payable on an online loan – principal, interest, fees, penalties, and other charges combined – at no more than 200 percent of the original principal. It bars hidden charges, misleading terms, and automatic loan rollovers without a borrower’s specific consent.
The bill also prohibits harassment, public shaming, contacting people other than the borrower except in limited cases, and baseless threats of criminal prosecution. Violators would face three to six years in prison and fines of ₱100,000 to ₱1 million, with heavier penalties for serious harm or unlicensed operators.
A Victim Compensation Board for Online Lending Abuses would be created under the Securities and Exchange Commission to hear complaints and award refunds, actual and moral damages, exemplary damages, attorney’s fees, and protection orders through a dedicated compensation fund. The SEC would also gain authority to order the removal or blocking of unlicensed lending apps.
Where this fits into existing rules
Complaints of this kind are already handled under SEC Memorandum Circular No. 18, issued in 2019, which bars financing and lending companies from using threats, profanity, public shaming, or contact with people outside a borrower’s declared guarantors to collect a debt. That circular caps administrative fines at ₱1 million per violation but carries no prison term – a gap that HB 10366 would close by adding criminal liability.
The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission reported in July 2025 that most of the roughly 156,000 complaints police receive each month involved victims of online lending harassment, and the commission was handling 15,000 such cases at the time. The scale of those complaints has prompted several House measures targeting online lenders in recent months, though HB 10366 is among the more detailed to reach the floor.
The bill has been filed and referred to committee. Its progress will depend on House deliberations once Congress resumes regular session.
