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Law on Premature Marriage, a discrimination against women

Frederick B. Nebaten
Marriage in Filipino culture is basically conservative and monogamous in
nature since most of our law was based or adopted from the Divine Law of
Christianism provided by the Holy Bible. As a result, we live by the
commandments of God even in our marriage as written in the book of Exodus
20:7, Thou shall not commit adultery and Exodus 20:17, Thou shall not covet
thy neighbors house, thou shall not covet thy neighbors wife, nor his maid
servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbors.
Couples are bound by the Bible and the law to be faithful to their life-
partner to the day of their death as cited on Mathew 19:5-6, For the man shall
leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be
one flesh. Wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God
hath joined together, let not man put asunder.The law adopted the Biblical
principle and stated in the Family Code under Article 1 marriage is a special
contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in
accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal family. Suggesting that
marriage is a lifetime contract and can never be dissolved as any of the
contracting parties may wish. Thus marriage can only be dissolved by death
nor legal annulment, however the dissolution of marriage does not signal an
absolute freedom for a Filipina citizen to remarry for the reason that Article 351
of the Revised Penal Code states that any widow who shall marry within three
hundred and one day (301) from the death of her husband, or before having
delivered if she shall have been pregnant at the time of his death, shall be
punished by arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding 500 pesos. The same
penalties shall be imposed upon any woman whose marriage shall have been
annulled or dissolved, if she shall marry before her delivery or before the
expiration of the period of three hundred and one day after the legal
separation.
Such law was promulgated most importantly for women who are not
pregnant or women who are not sure whether they are pregnant from their
previous marriage to avoid confusion on the paternity or filiation of any child
that may be born under such circumstances. The question is why 301 days or
ten (10) months when normal pregnancy lasts only nine (9) months. It is
because the law accept possibility that a woman maybe in pregnancy for more
than nine (9) months or retarded conception as in the case of U.S. vs. Dulay,
10 Phil. 305. For those who are pregnant during the death of their husband,
the law applies only until delivery while disregarding women who in their first
marriage proved that the husband was impotent or sterile.
The purpose of the law in general was for the protection of any child in
given cases to preserve their rights but such cases can now be easily resolved
through science and with the use of medical technologies like DNA or
Deoxyribonucleic Acid and Genetic Engineering, paternal or maternal lineage
are now easy to distinguish making the existing law obsolete and turning it like
discriminatory law against women.
Moreover the law does not respond with countrys obligation on
International Law on Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, Article 16 mandates that, states parties shall
take all appropriate measure to eliminate discrimination against women in all
matters relating to marriage and family relations. Also there are remedies
provided by the Family Code of the Philippines in resolution of the filiations of a
child, Article 168 says that, if a child was born before the lapse of 180 days
after the celebration of second (2
nd
) marriage is considered to have been
conceived with her first (1
st
) marriage; and if a child was born after 180 days
following celebration of second (2
nd
) marriage, whether within 300 days after
termination of the first (1
st
) marriage or afterwards, the child is considered to
have been conceived during the second (2
nd
) marriage.
As Senator Nancy Binay told in an interview, Although there have been
no known conviction for violation of Article 351 of the Revised Penal Code, it is
high time that Congress takes the necessary step to abolish provisions of our
laws which are antiquated and serve no other purpose other than to perpetuate
discrimination against women.

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