BIGAMY | Converting to Islam before entering second marriage still guilty of bigamy

BIGAMY | Converting to Islam before entering second marriage still guilty of bigamy – SC

March 23, 2022 , 04:31 PM

(March 23, 2022) – Any person who enters a second marriage is still guilty of bigamy even after converting to Islam, if the first marriage remains and is recognized under the civil law, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled.

The 17-page decision penned by Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, promulgated in November but released only to the public on Monday, affirmed a 2015 decision and resolution of the Court of Appeals (CA) on grounds that the Islamic law does not cover the first marriage in this case.

“A party to a civil marriage I who converts to Islam and contracts another marriage, despite the first marriage’s subsistence, is guilty of bigamy,” Leonen said in the decision. “Likewise guilty is the spouse in the subsequent marriage. Conversion to Islam does not operate to exculpate them from criminal liability.”

The case involved the first wife filing a case against her husband and his second wife of bigamy in 2005 after discovering the latter two got married after he had abandoned the former and her two sons. The first marriage happened in 1988 under the religious rites of Iglesia ni Cristo.

But the husband and his second wife claimed that they cannot be penalized for bigamy as they converted to Islam before they married, an argument that was shot down by the regional court. This was affirmed by both SC and CA.

Leonen said the Muslim Code explicitly stated that the Civil Code, which criminalizes bigamy, governs marriage where either party is non-Muslim and were not solemnized in Muslim rights.

The code also only allows married male Muslims to have more than one wife if he can guarantee “equal companionship and just treatment” to his wives, and the first wife’s knowledge and consent is required before entering another marriage, he said.

“In any case, even granting that the parties’ circumstances fell exclusively within the coverage of the Muslim Code, noncompliance with the condition precedent to subsequent marriages belies petitioners’ good faith and manifests their intent to circumvent the law,” Leonen said.

The penalty was modified to raise the penalty to two years and four months to eight years and one day imprisonment. The earlier ruling was six months to six years imprisonment.

“Our pluralist society recognizes that legal institutions may not be subsumed in a homogenous legal system… However, this Court should not condone practices which circumvent laws in the guise of preserving culture,” Leonen said.

(MM)

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