UNDER THE LAW

EPISODE 40
 ACHARON V. PEOPLE
G.R. NO. 224946
NOVEMBER 9, 2021

ALMELOR V. RTC OF LAS PINAS

G.R. NO. 179620
AUGUST 26 2008

NAJERA VS. NAJERA

G.R. 164817
JULY 3, 2009
 IF THE HUSBAND
REFUSED TO GIVE
FINANCIAL SUPPORT
TO HIS WIFE AND
CHILD, CAN HE BE
CRIMINALLY
LIABLE?
ACHARON V. PEOPLE
G.R. NO. 224946
NOVEMBER 9, 2021
 ACHARON V. PEOPLE
G.R. NO. 224946
NOVEMBER 9, 2021
Republic Act No. 9262 March 08, 2004
AN ACT DEFINING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR CHILDREN,
PROVIDING FOR PROTECTIVE MEASURES FOR VICTIMS, PRESCRIBING
PENALTIES THEREFORE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
XXXXXXX
SECTION 3. Definition of Terms.
XXXXXX
D. "Economic abuse" refers to acts that make or attempt to make a
woman financially dependent which includes, but is not limited to the
following:
1. withdrawal of financial support or preventing the victim from
engaging in any legitimate profession, occupation, business or
activity, except in cases wherein the other spouse/partner objects
on valid, serious and moral grounds as defined in Article 73 of the
Family Code;
2. deprivation or threat of deprivation of financial resources and
the right to the use and enjoyment of the conjugal, community or
property owned in common;
3.destroying household property;
4.controlling the victim's own money or properties or solely
controlling the conjugal money or properties. (Emphasis and
underscoring supplied)
 ACHARON V. PEOPLE
G.R. NO. 224946
NOVEMBER 9, 2021

Republic Act No. 9262 March 08, 2004

AN ACT DEFINING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND THEIR
CHILDREN, PROVIDING FOR PROTECTIVE MEASURES FOR
VICTIMS, PRESCRIBING PENALTIES THEREFORE, AND FOR
OTHER PURPOSES
XXXXXXX
SECTION 5. Acts of Violence Against Women and Their Children.- The
crime of violence against women and their children is committed
through any of the following acts:
XXXXXX
 ACHARON V. PEOPLE
G.R. NO. 224946
NOVEMBER 9, 2021

XXXX
(e) Attempting to compel or compelling the woman or her
child to engage in conduct which the woman or her child has
the right to desist from or to desist from conduct which the
woman or her child has the right to engage in, or attempting
to restrict or restricting the woman's or her child's freedom of
movement or conduct by force or threat of force, physical or
other harm or threat of physical or other harm, or intimidation
directed against the woman or child. This shall include, but
not limited to, the following acts committed with the purpose
or effect of controlling or restricting the woman's or her
child's movement or conduct:
XXX
(2)Depriving or threatening to deprive the woman or her
children of financial support legally due her or her
family, or deliberately providing the woman's children
insufficient financial support;
 ACHARON V. PEOPLE
G.R. NO. 224946
NOVEMBER 9, 2021

XXXXXX
(i) Causing mental or emotional
anguish, public ridicule or humiliation
to the woman or her child, including,
but not limited to, repeated verbal and
emotional abuse, and denial of
financial support or custody of minor
children of access to the woman's
child/children.
 ACHARON V. PEOPLE
G.R. NO. 224946
NOVEMBER 9, 2021

In Dinamling v. People, the Court laid down the elements to prove

a violation of Section 5(i):
(1) The offended party is a woman and/or her child or
children;
(2) The woman is either the wife or former wife of the
offender, or is a woman with whom the offender has or had
a sexual or dating relationship, or is a woman with whom
such offender has a common child. As for the woman's
child or children, they may be legitimate or illegitimate, or
living within or without the family abode;
(3) The offender causes on the woman and/or child mental
or emotional anguish; and
(4) The anguish is caused through acts of public ridicule
or humiliation, repeated verbal and emotional abuse, denial
of financial support or custody of minor children or access
to the children or similar such acts or omissions.
Not all of the foregoing elements, however, are present in
this case. Specifically, the fourth element was not
established beyond reasonable doubt.
 ACHARON V. PEOPLE
G.R. NO. 224946
NOVEMBER 9, 2021

The Court stresses that

Section 5(i) of R.A. 9262 uses
the phrase "denial of financial
support" in defining the criminal
act. The word "denial" is
defined as "refusal to satisfy a
request or desire" or "the act
22

of not allowing someone to do

or have something.
IS HOMOSEXUALITY
A GROUND TO
ANNUL A
MARRIAGE?

ALMELOR V. RTC OF LAS PINAS

G.R. NO. 179620
AUGUST 26 2008
 ALMELOR V. RTC OF LAS PINAS
G.R. NO. 179620
AUGUST 26 2008

XXX II. Concealment of

homosexuality is the proper
ground to annul a marriage,
not homosexuality per se.
 ALMELOR V. RTC OF LAS PINAS
G.R. NO. 179620
AUGUST 26 2008

Art. 46 (of the FAMILY CODE OF

THE PHILIPPINES). Any of the
following circumstances shall
constitute fraud referred to in
Number 3 of the preceding Article:
XXXX
(4) Concealment of drug
addiction, habitual alcoholism or
homosexuality or lesbianism
existing at the time of the
marriage.
 ALMELOR V. RTC OF LAS PINAS
G.R. NO. 179620
AUGUST 26 2008

(Number 3)
Art. 45 (of the FAMILY CODE OF THE
PHILIPPINES). A marriage may be
annulled for any of the following
causes, existing at the time of the
marriage:
xxxxx
(3) That the consent of either party
was obtained by fraud, unless such
party afterwards, with full knowledge
of the facts constituting the fraud,
freely cohabited with the other as
husband and wife;
IS ABANDONMENT
OF A SPOUSE BE A
GROUND FOR
ANNULMENT OF
MARRIAGE OR
LEGAL
SEPARATION?
NAJERA VS. NAJERA
G.R. 164817
JULY 3, 2009
 NAJERA VS. NAJERA
G.R. 164817
JULY 3, 2009
The Family Code, Art. 55. A petition for legal separation may be filed on
any of the following grounds:
(1) Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed
against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;
(2) Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to
change religious or political affiliation;
(3) Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common
child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or
connivance in such corruption or inducement;
(4) Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more
than six years, even if pardoned;
(5) Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent;
(6) Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;
(7) Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage,
whether in the Philippines or abroad;
(8) Sexual infidelity or perversion;
(9) Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or
(10) Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause
for more than one year.
 NAJERA VS. NAJERA
G.R. 164817
JULY 3, 2009

Art. 36. A marriage contracted

by any party who, at the time of
the celebration, was
psychologically incapacitated to
comply with the essential
marital obligations of marriage,
shall likewise be void even if
such incapacity becomes
manifest only after its
solemnization.
 NAJERA VS. NAJERA
G.R. 164817
JULY 3, 2009

The Court agrees with the Court of

Appeals that the evidence presented
by petitioner in regard to the physical
violence or grossly abusive conduct of
respondent toward petitioner and
respondent’s abandonment of
petitioner without justifiable cause for
more than one year are grounds for
legal separation only and not for
annulment of marriage under Article 36
of the Family Code.