LUISITO PULIDO v PEOPLE

G.R. No. 220149, July 27, 2021

FACTS:

On September 5, 1983, then 16 yr old Luisito Pulido married his teacher, then 22 yr old Nora
Arcon. The couple lived together until 2007 when Pulido stopped going home to their
conjugal dwelling. When confronted by Alarcon, Pulido admitted to his affair with Baleda.
Arcon likewise learned that Pulido and baleda entered into marriage on July 31, 1995. Arcon
charged them with bigamy. The RTC convicted Pulido of bigamy and acquitted Baleda. Pulido
appealed his conviction on the ground that the first element of the crime, i.e., the subsistence
of a valid marriage, was absent. Pulido maintained that his first marriage to Arcon is void ab
initio for lack of a marriage license while his marriage with Baleda is also void since there
was no marriage ceremony performed. During the pendency of the bigamy case, Pulido
obtained a judicial declaration of absolute nullity of his first marriage with Arcon which he
presented as his defense.

ISSUE:

Whether or not an accused indicted for Bigamy may be acquitted on the basis of the judicial
declaration of nullity of his first or second marriage?

RULING:

Yes, a judicial declaration of absolute nullity of either the first and second marriages
obtained by the accused is considered a valid defense in bigamy. A void ab initio
marriage is a valid defense in the prosecution for bigamy even without a judicial
declaration of absolute nullity.

To all legal intents and purposes, the void ab initio marriage does not exist and the parties
thereto, under the lens of the law, were never married. In this respect, the effects of a
declaration of the nullity of a void marriage by a competent court retroacts to the date of the
celebration thereof, since the spouses were considered never married under the lens of the
law.

Being inexistent under the eyes of the law, the nullity of a void marriage can be maintained
in any proceeding in which the fact of marriage may be material, either direct or collateral,
in any civil court between any parties at any time, whether before or after the death of either
or both the spouses. A void marriage is ipso facto void without need of any judicial
declaration of nullity; the only recognized exception under existing law is Article 40 of the
Family Code where a marriage void ab initio is deemed valid for purposes of remarriage,
hence necessitating a judicial declaration of nullity before one can contract a subsequent
marriage.

Clearly, when the first marriage is void ab initio, one of the essential elements of bigamy is
absent, i.e. a prior valid marriage. There can be no crime when the very act which was
penalized by the law, i.e. contracting another marriage during the subsistence of a prior legal
or valid marriage, is not present. The existence and the validity of the first marriage being an
essential element of the crime of bigamy, it is but logical that a conviction for said offense
cannot be sustained where there is no first marriage to begin with. Thus, an accused in a
bigamy case should be allowed to raise the defense of a prior void ab initio marriage through
competent evidence other than the judicial decree of nullity.