Bayan Muna party-list Representative Neri Colmenares filed a bill last 2010 to revoke the said

law, firmly believing that “insult or passion must never be a license to kill.” But regardless if
this bill will be approved or not, it will never erase the fact that love is a multifaceted
phenomenon. Sadly, hapless victims from the past had to suffer the cruelty from a love
developed in the wrong person, at the wrong place and at the wrong time.

Repealing Article 247 of the Revised Penal

Code
Policy Brief No. 5

Upholding the Right of Life and Security of Spouses and Daughters:

REPEALING ARTICLE 247 OF THE REVISED PENAL CODE

This policy brief provides the rationale for amending Articles 96 and 124 of the
Family Code of the Philippines. It puts together illustrations on how traces of
inequality between the spouses are still maintained in the said law, as well as legal
and practical bases for policy makers to address the issue.

In an interview with Justice Sandoval, a retired Justice of the Sandiganbayan, he said

that

“In some jurisdiction, there are the so-called laws in defense of honor. Under
such laws, husbands or family members are exempted from criminal liability
for the murders or other forms of violence they committed against their wives,
daughters or sisters. The rationale behind such laws is that women’s
unacceptable sexual behavior besmirches family honor.”

A somewhat similar law still exists in our Revised Penal Code:

“Art. 247. Death or physical injuries inflicted under exceptional

circumstances. — Any legally married person who having surprised his spouse
in the act of committing sexual intercourse with another person, shall kill any
of them or both of them in the act or immediately thereafter, or shall inflict
upon them any serious physical injury, shall suffer the penalty of destierro.

If he shall inflict upon them physical injuries of any other kind, he shall be
exempt from punishment.
 These rules shall be applicable, under the same circumstances, to parents with
respect to their daughters under eighteen years of age, and their seducer, while
the daughters are living with their parents.

Any person who shall promote or facilitate the prostitution of his wife or
daughter, or shall otherwise have consented to the infidelity of the other spouse
shall not be entitled to the benefits of this article.”

On the question of the relevancy of the issue he said that,

“Death penalty has been outlawed in our country with the enactment of RA
9346 in 2006, but Article 247 practically penalizes with death a spouse or
daughter who is caught in the act of committing sexual intercourse. Under the
law, a spouse adjudged guilty of killing or inflicting serious physical injuries
on the other spouse caught in the act of committing sexual intercourse with
another person shall only be penalized with destierro. In contrast to the
penalties for parricide or serious physical injuries, destierro only prohibits the
convicted person from entering court-designated places or a specified radius of
those places. This is not so much a penalty but a means of protecting the
convicted person from retaliation of the family members of the deceased.

The law has been rationalized as follows: “(The) law, when the circumstances
provided by this article are present, considers the spouse… as acting in a
justified burst of passion.3 ” While passion can be considered as a mitigating
circumstance which could lower the penalty by one degree under other
circumstances, Article 247 provides a different appreciation of passion as it
provides for the absolution of the convicted person.

There are gender-based assumptions underlying this that should be exposed, and
some of these are:

 that women should keep a particular sexual conduct or should maintain certain
moral standards;
 that they are wards or property of the men or the parents; and
 that their deviation from the sexual or “moral” norm (the “good-bad woman”
dichotomy), excuses the parents, particularly the fathers’ and husbands’ killing
or injuring them. ”
 

Are there existing laws or policy issuances related to the issue?

 “Republic Act No. 9710 or the Magna Carta of Women provides that the
government shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination
against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations.
Further, the provision on equal treatment before the law mandates the State to
take steps to review and amend and/or repeal existing laws that are
discriminatory to women, which include Article 247 of the RPC.”
 

The 1987 Constitution Article III, Section I provides that, "No person shall be
deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law."

RPC Article 246 provides that “any person who shall kill his father, mother, or child,
whether legitimate or illegitimate, or any of his ascendants, or descendants, or his
spouse shall be guilty of parricide and shall be punished by the penalty of reclusion
perpetua.”

Sexual Infidelity is a ground for legal separation under the Family Code of the
Philippines. It is also considered a crime under specific circumstances provided for in
RPC Articles 333 and 334.

With regards to the provision pertaining to daughters, the Declaration of Policy of

Republic Act No. 7610 or the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse,
Exploitation and Discrimination Act mandates that, “The best interests of children
shall be the paramount consideration in all actions concerning them, whether
undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law,
administrative authorities, and legislative bodies…  Every effort shall be exerted to
promote the welfare of children and enhance their opportunities for a useful and
happy life.”

1 Santos, Aida F. et. al. Toward a Gender-Responsive Legislation. National

Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, 1999
2 R.A. 9346 – An Act Prohibiting the Imposition of Death Penalty in the Philippines
3  People vs. Gonzales, 69 Phil 65, quoted in Toward a Gender-Responsive
Legislation. National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, 1999
 4 Santos, Aida F. et. al. Toward a Gender-Responsive Legislation. National
Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, 1999