Posts
Jeremy D. Morley
Philippines’ law criminalizes adultery
and concubinage. Both are deemed “crimes against chastity” under the Revised
Penal Code of the Philippines and are treated as sexual infidelity in the
Family Code.
The law discriminates against wives. The crime of adultery
can be committed only by a wife and her paramour. The husband need only prove
that his wife had sexual intercourse with a man other than him.
The crime of concubinage can be committed only by a husband
and his concubine, but it requires that the wife must prove that her husband
has kept a mistress in the conjugal dwelling, or has had sexual intercourse
under “scandalous circumstances” or lived together with his mistress in any
other place.
The penalties are also quite different. For adultery the
guilty wife and her paramour may be imprisoned for up to 6 years
For concubinage, the husband may be imprisoned for up to 4
years and 1 day, while his concubine may be merely “banished” but may not be imprisoned.
The laws work to the great disadvantage of women. There is no
divorce in the Philippines and abandoned wives are often accused of adultery in
order to force them to agree to their husband’s petitions to nullify the marriage.
The Philippine Commission on Women reports that, “In many cases, women who are
faced by these threats are forced to forego legitimate custodial claims of
their children while some are forced to give up their claims over conjugal
properties, assets and the like.”
