Solon wants equal application of adultery laws

Why can’t men be accused of adultery?

A lawmaker has filed a bill to amend the Revised Penal Code to make provisions on adultery and concubinage applicable to both men and women.

House Bill 5290 authored by Negros Occidental Rep. Mercedes Alvarez proposes the equal application of laws on marital infidelity in accordance with Article II, Section 14 of the Constitution.

“The bill seeks to amend provisions under the Revised Penal Code to ensure the fundamental equality before the law of women and men,” Alvarez said in the bill’s explanatory note.

The lawmaker noted that under Article 333 of the Revised Penal Code, adultery may only be committed by a married woman and by the man who shall have sexual intercourse with her.

Article 334 meanwhile states that concubinage may be committed by a husband only under certain conditions which Alvarez said are “difficult to prove” such as keeping a mistress in the conjugal dwelling, or having sexual relations with a woman who is not his wife under scandalous circumstances.

“These provisions have allowed other married persons not falling within the coverage to perpetuate marital infidelity but remaining unscathed from the application of the law.  This measure seeks to eliminate this gender bias,’ Alvarez  said.

Under HB 5290, Article 333 is now read as follows: “Sexual Infidelity. – Sexual infidelity is committed by any legally married person who shall have sexual intercourse with another person other than the married person, knowing that person to be legally married, even if the marriage is subsequently declared void.”

Article 334 is likewise amended by changing the words “adultery” and “concubinage” to “sexual infidelity.”

Article 345, which deals with the civil liability of persons guilty of crimes against chastity, the phrase “the adulterer and the concubine” is amended to persons guilty of sexual infidelity.

The measure also proposes imposing the penalty of prision correccional in its maximum period, or jail time of up to six years, for offenders who shall keep a paramour in the conjugal dwelling.

On the other hand, the penalty of prision correccional in its medium period shall be imposed upon the offender who shall cohabit with a paramour in any other place.

Further, the penalty of prision correccional in its minimum period shall be imposed if the offense was committed when the accused spouse had been abandoned without just cause for more than one year and when the accused spouse had been subjected to repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct by the offended spouse.
 

The present law provides a penalty of prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods for adultery and concubinage. — Xianne Arcangel/JDS, GMA News