AAA v BBB

GR No 212448; Jan 11, 2018

FACTS: AAA (F) and BBB (M) were married on Aug 1, 2006 and produced 2 children, CCC

(M) and DDD. In May 2007, BBB started working in Singapore as a chef, where he acquired

permanent resident status in Sept 2008 while AAA and their children resided with BBB’s parents

until March 2010 when they moved back to her parents’ house. There were allegations of virtual

abandonment, mistreatment of AAA and CCC, and physical and sexual violence. BBB also

started having an affair with a Singaporean woman named Lisel Mok with whom he had been

living in Singapore. Things came to a head on April 19, 2011 when AAA and BBB had a violent

altercation at a hotel room in Singapore during her visit with their kids. Included in the complaint

was a violation of Sec 5(i) providing for cases of “causing mental or emotional anguish” among

others due to the extramarital affair of BBB.

ISSUE: Do the Philippine courts have jurisdiction over violations of RA 9262 committed in

another state?

RULING: Yes. Even if the alleged extramarital affair causing the offended wife mental and

emotional anguish is committed abroad, the same does not place a prosecution under RA 9262

absolutely beyond the reach of the Philippine courts. RA 9262 criminalizes not the marital

infidelity per se but the psychological violence causing mental or emotional suffering of the

wife. Otherwise stated, it is the violence inflicted under the said circumstances that the law seeks

to outlaw with marital infidelity, as cited, as only one of the various acts.