NANCY WANTS ANTI-WOMEN PROVISIONS
IN REVISED PENAL CODE REPEALED
Bill seeks to ensure equality of women, men on crimes of adultery, concubinage

Senator Nancy Binay has filed Senate Bill No. 1648 seeking to ensure the equality of men and women on crimes of chastity, specifically adultery and concubinage.

In the proposed amendment to the Revised Penal Code, Binay said that there are still a number of discriminatory provisions under Philippine laws which prejudice against women, noting that "provisions of law which engender inequality should be abolished."

The bill seeks to amend Article 333 and repeal Article 334 of the Revised Penal Act (RA 3815).

The lady senator said that there have been a series of proposals to amend these anti-women provisions in the Revised Penal Code but none have been enacted so far.

These provisions in the law, Binay said, perpetuate discrimination against women and are inconsistent with the policy ensuring equality before the law.

Binay said that the penalty for adultery, in which a married woman has sexual intercourse with a man who is not her husband, is higher than the penalty for concubinage.

The law says concubinage is committed by the husband if he keeps a mistress in the family home, or has sexual intercourse, under scandalous circumstances, with a woman who is not his wife, or cohabits with a woman in any other place.

The act of concubinage, according to the lady senator, is "difficult to prove."