Sen. Nancy Binay Moves for the Deletion of the Anti-Woman Provision ofthe Revised Penal Code

A wedding photo taken from google.com.

One of the issues that is brought in the senate today is the deletion or the amendment of the so-called anti-woman provision of the Revised Penal Code.  It was Senator Maria Lourdes Nancy S. Binay who proposed its deletion.  This provision is all about the premature marriage.

A picture of Sen. Nancy S. Binay taken from google.com.

According to Article 351 of the Revised Penal Code:

"Any widow who shall marry within three hundred and one days from the date of the death of her husband, or before having delivered if she shall have been pregnant at the time of his death, shall be punished by arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding 500 pesos.

The same penalties shall be imposed upon any woman whose marriage shall have been annulled or dissolved, if she shall marry before her delivery or before the expiration of the period of three hundred and one days after the legal separation."

This is the so-called premature marriage.  Premature in the sense that the couple did not wait the expiration of the 301 days provided by law before the subsequent marriage.

This provision of the penal code specifically penalizes the WIDOW, the SEPARATED WOMAN and the ANNULLED WOMAN.  It does not include to penalize the husband contracted anew with the second or any subsequent marriage.

What is prohibited in this particular provision of the law is the subsequent marriage within a period of 301 days from the time of the date of the death of her husband or from the date of the legal separation or annulment.

If a woman violates this provision, she may be meted out with imprisonment of arresto mayor and a fine of not exceeding 500 pesos.  Arresto mayor is the imprisonment of 1 month and 1 day to 6 months.  Take note that both imprisonment and the payment of the fine are to be imposed.

The rationale behind this provision is the prevention of having a child not fathered by the subsequent husband at the time of the celebration of the subsequent marriage.  The period of 301 days is provided to determine whether or not the woman pregnant by her previous husband.  If she is indeed pregnant, the marrriage shall be celebrated after the delivery of the said child.

Be it noted that the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines or the Act Number 3815 took effect on January 1, 1932 (Article 1 of the Act No. 3815).

At that time it took effect, no technology yet was prevalently used in the country to determine the pregnancy of the woman.  Thus, the authors of the law deemed it proper to simply count the number of days the mother is expected to deliver the baby and that is 301 days.

However, with today's technology, it is easy to determine the pregnancy of the woman.  Thus, if the woman is found not to be pregnant with her previous husband, there would be no reason to wait the expiration of the 301 days.  Considering we have a law for that matter, couple should wait the expiration of the 301 days before contracting the subsequent marriage. 

Since it took effect, said provision of the law is not being reviewed by the members of the Congress.  It is only this time Senator Binay took notice of the said provision.  In fact, some of them were shocked to discover that such provision exists.

Accordingly, there is no recorded conviction of the said provision of the law.  Aside from the fact that it is already antiquated, it serves no longer the purpose accordingly.

Thus, when the proposed deletion of the said provision is brought, it was approved without any further discussion.

Until and unless the said provision is deleted, we have to observe the 301 before the subsequent marriage.