Sandarah Kylah M.

Dumam-ag
Grade 11 HUMSS
Discipline and Idea in the Social Sciences
Module 9
Practice Task 3
POSITION PAPER

INEQUALITY IN OUR PENAL LAW ON

ADULTERY AND CONCUBINAGE

Every day, in every country in the world, women are confronted by

discrimination and inequality. They face violence, abuse and unequal treatment at
home, community and even in their own marraiges. Men also experiences unjust
treatment but there’s no doubt that women’s suffering from discrimination is far way
horrible (not trying to invalidate men’s feeling though).

Since we’re talking about inequality, I will might as well drop here the issue
of Inequality in our penal law on adultery and concubinage. The disparity in the
treatment of adultery and concubinage arises from gender biases in being more
lenient or seemingly accepting the infidelity of men as normal, but more stringent on
women who are expected to be faithful to her husband. These discriminatory
provisions in the RPC should be removed or repealed. It is clearly promoting unfair
justice for the wife that has been cheated on.

Adultery and Concubinage are penalized under separate provisions in the

Revised Penal Code (RPC) according to the sex of the offending spouse. These
differences also affect the number of times that the offending spouse may be held
liable for an extra-marital affair. In today’s society, knowing how keen for fair
treatment the people are, this issue is still considered as a hot controversy. There
are many cases like these out there and after learning its rule of judging, it
completely broke me personally. This matter is a sexist one, obviously.
 Many people would see this as overreaching government control. Or some
might also say that what I’m fighting for is a form of Female chauvinism. But to tell
you this, this isn’t one of the likes. I hope everyone would finally open their eyes
and choose equality.

In adultery, the penalty is the same for both the guilty wife and her paramour
which is imprisonment for a maximum period of 6 years but in concubinage, the
penalty for the guilty husband is lower by one degree which is imprisonment for a
maximum period of 4 years and 1 day only, while his concubine is given a separate
punishment called distierro or exile. This kind of ruling is very alarming. It is
unquestionably depriving women rights.

Proving concubinage in court is difficult. You have first to look for several
ways to consider if the husband is committing such thing:

(a) by keeping a mistress in the conjugal dwelling.

(b) by having sexual intercourse under scandalous circumstances with a woman
who is not his wife; or
(c) by cohabiting with his mistress in any other place.

Due to the difficulties in filing and proving a concubinage case, the wife could
only instead file a case of Pyschological Violence due to Marital Infidelity under RA
9262. The penalty for psychological violence under RA 9262 is a minimum of 6
years up to 12 years of imprisonment. The maximum penalty is imposed if the
violence is committed by the husband or the intimate partner against the woman
when she is pregnant or in the presence of their children.

With the aforementioned above, we could really say that the discrimination
against women in this system of ruling is very evident. While it’s very hard to make
concubinage possible, filing adultery, on the other hand, is undoubtedly trouble-
free. The husband only needs a proof of sexual intercourse that will suffice to file a
case against her wife.
 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.

This law 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.

This law is also unfair to women because of the penalty system. The
husband could only be imprisoned for 4 years and 1 day while the wife could be
imprisoned for a maximum period of 6 years. If you would dig deeper into it, you will
really envision how marred our justice system is. As what I have mentioned above,
these discriminatory provisions in the RPC should be removed or repealed for it
dispossess women rights and Equality for both Gender.

In my own perspective, we could solve and make inequality vanish in this

case by revising or changing the law. The punishment and ruling for these two
cases must be the same with each other. Women should not be deprived same as
Men. Afterall, both committed the same crime, the difference is only the Gender. Let
us stop sexism and promote Gender equality.