Name: Charmaine A.

Guzman

Section: 1-C-1

Subject: Article 247 of the Revised Penal Code

Date: February 24, 2018

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Article 247 of the Revised Penal Code states that:

“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
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.”

In the abovementioned article, there is a conflicting opinion about certain

points in relation to the penalty imposed upon the accused and whether such penalty is
justified.

II. CONCLUSION

The article supports the provisions laid down in the Civil Code regarding
marriage and the respective rights and obligations between the husband and wife.
However, with regard to the physical harm inflicted upon or the killing of the daughter,
it is not in harmony with the constitutional provision that protects and strengthens the
family as the basic social institution.
III. DISCUSSION

By the contract of marriage, a man and a woman enter a joint life acting, living,
and working as one. Whether under the common law or under the civil law, upon
marriage, the husband and the wife become one single moral, spiritual and social being,
not only for the purpose of procreation, but also for the purpose of mutual help and
protection physically, morally and materially. (Saclolo v. CAR, 106 Phil. 1038)
Accordingly, marriage is a relationship of the highest importance. (Manuel v. People,
G.R. No. 165842, November 29, 2005, 476 SCRA 461) Under Article 68 of the Civil Code,
the husband and the wife are obliged to live together, observe mutual love, respect and
fidelity, and render mutual help and support. It must be noted that fidelity was among
those considered to be an obligation that must be observed by both spouses.

In Article 247 of the RPC, it is said that any legally married person who comes
upon suddenly and unexpectedly on his/her spouse in the act of sexually intercourse
with another person and who shall kill any or both of them, will suffer only the penalty
of destierro. The justification lies in the fact that the law considers the spouse as acting
in a justified burst of passion. Article 247, in effect, confers upon the offended spouse or
parent, the power to inflict the supreme penalty of death.

The article in question is in keeping with the provisions of the Civil Code and the
Constitution protecting the marriage as a relationship of the highest importance.
Consequently, the law included fidelity as an obligation to be mutually observed by the
spouses. The outrage overwhelming the offended spouse after chancing upon his wife
or her husband in the basest act of infidelity is the natural reaction of any spouse
confronted with that kind of situation, and such burst of passion would most certainly
result to killing or inflicting of physical injury to any of the transgressors.

However, with regard to the part of Article 247 wherein the rules are applicable
as well to parents with respect to their daughters under eighteen years of age, and their
seducer, while the daughters are living with their parents, the justification for the burst
of passion which results to either killing or infliction of physical injury must be
reconsidered. It may be said that the act of the daughter with her seducer is
reprehensible, but killing as the result is excessive and not in congruence with the
parental instinct to protect their child.

IV. RECOMMENDATION

The first and second paragraph of Article 247 should be maintained. As to the
third paragraph, only the infliction of physical injuries to the daughter shall exempt the
parent from criminal liability, and the killing of the former shall result to a penalty of
reclusion temporal.