Ex-PHL envoy posts bail after being arrested for concubinage

A former Philippine ambassador to Mexico was arrested Wednesday over concubinage charges filed against him by his wife.

 

But former envoy Francisco Ortigas III gained his temporary liberty after posting a P10,000 bail, radio dzBB reported Thursday.

 

Ortigas served as envoy to Mexico from 2008 to 2010 under the administration of then President Gloria Arroyo, the report said.

 

Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group agents arrested Ortigas at the Tektite Building in Pasig City, based on an arrest warrant issued by a Pasig City court.

 

The report said the arrest stemmed from charges lodged by Ortigas's wife Susana Madrigal Bayot.

 

Article 334 of the Revised Penal Code defines concubinage as an offense where a husband keeps a mistress in the conjugal dwelling, "or shall have sexual intercourse, under scandalous circumstances, with a woman who is not his wife, or shall cohabit with her in any other place." 

 

It carries a penalty of prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods. Prision correccional may last between six months and one day to six years.

 

On the other hand, the Revised Penal Code article on concubinage also imposes the penalty of destierro on the concubine.

 

Destierro is defined as follows by Article 114 of the Revised Penal Code as being "precluded from entering the place or places designated in the sentence, or within the radius therein designated, which shall include a distance of 25 kilometers at least, and 250 kilometers at most, from the place designated." –KG, GMA News