Bill seeking to decriminalize marital infidelity filed

MANILA, Philippines – House lawmakers are pushing for the decriminalization of marital infidelity, saying the law is unfair to women.

Led by Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas, the Makabayan bloc filed House Bill 1144 seeking to repeal Articles 333 and 334 of the Revised Penal Code, which penalize adultery for wives and concubinage for husbands.

Brosas said the law on adultery and concubinage is discriminatory against women in terms of evidence and penalties.

“There is inequality in gender and discrimination against women in this law. There is a need for more evidence to prove concubinage by a husband than to prove adultery by the wife,” Brosas told The STAR yesterday. 

Brosas said such unfair treatment of women under the law covering marital infidelity must be corrected.

“The husband needs only to prove that his wife engaged in a sexual act with another man, while the wife needs to show that her husband’s sexual intercourse with another woman was done under ‘scandalous circumstances,’” she said.

“And under the third circumstances when concubinage is committed, it is not enough that the husband is keeping a paramour in another house. It must be shown that the husband lives with the paramour in that house,” she added.

Brosas questioned the unequal penalties imposed on women and men under the law. 

Adultery is punishable by two years and four months to six years in prison, while a man proven guilty of concubinage may be sentenced to six months and one day to four years and two months in prison only.