SC ruling on marital rape unprecedented

See - SC ruling on marital rape unprecedented





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The Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction of a husband for raping his wife twice in 1998 and the two life imprisonments imposed on him by the trial court after finding him guilty of marital rape.

“Husbands do not have property rights over their wives’ bodies. Sexual intercourse, albeit within the realm of marriage, if not consensual, is rape,” the SC ruled citing the Anti-Rape Law of 1997.

In a precedent-setting decision penned by Justice Bienvenido L. Reyes, the high court stressed that the presumption of innocence of the husband was “sufficiently overcome by the wife’s clear, straightforward, credible, and truthful declaration that on two separate occasions, he succeeded in having sexual intercourse with her, without her consent and against her will.”

It also said that the “evidence of overwhelming force and intimidation to consummate rape is extant from the wife’s narration as believably corroborated by the testimonies of their two children and the physical evidence of wife’s torn panties and short pants.”

“Based thereon, the reason and conscience of the Court is morally certain that the accused-appellant (husband) is guilty of raping his wife on the nights of October 16 and 17, 1998,” the SC held.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno and Justices Teresita J. Leonardo-de Castro, Lucas P. Bersamin, and Martin S. Villarama Jr. concurred with the ruling.

The couple was married in 1975.  They have four children.

“Husband aggrieved by his wife’s unremitting refusal to engage in sexual intercourse cannot resort to felonious force or coercion to make she yields,” the SC said.

“He (the husband) can seek succor before the Family Courts that can determine whether her refusal constitutes psychological incapacity justifying an annulment of the marriage,” it added.

Nonetheless, the SC warned “menacing personalities” who may use its decision on marital rape “as a tool to harass innocent husbands.”

“In this regard, let it be stressed that safeguards in the criminal justice system are in place to spot and scrutinize fabricated or false marital rape complaints and any person who institutes untrue and malicious charges will be made answerable under the pertinent provisions of the Revised Penal Code and/or other laws,” the tribunal stressed.

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