10 ABSURD AND ARCHAIC LAWS IN THE PHILIPPINES

1. ANTI-RAPE LAW OF 1997
Article 266, Section C

“The subsequent valid marriage between the offended party shall
extinguish the criminal action or the penalty imposed. In case it is the
legal husband who is the offender, the subsequent forgiveness by the
wife as the offended party shall extinguish the criminal action or the
penalty: Provided, that the crime shall not be extinguished or the
penalty shall not be abated if the marriage is void ab initio.”

2. FAMILY CODE
Article 15

“Any contracting party between the age of twenty-one and twenty-five shall be
obliged to ask their parents or guardian for advice upon the intended marriage. If
they do not obtain such advice, or it be unfavorable, the marriage license shall
not be issued till after three months following the completion of the publication of
the application there for. A sworn statement by the contracting parties to the
effect that such advice has been sought, together with the written advice given, if
any, shall be attached to the application for marriage license. Should the parents
or guardian refuse to give any advice, this fact shall be stated in the sworn
statement.”

3. REVISED PENAL CODE
Section 351

“Any widow who shall marry within three hundred and one day from the date of
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.”

4. REVISED PENAL CODE
Section 332

“No criminal, but only civil liability shall result from the commission of the crime of
theft, swindling, or malicious mischief committed or caused mutually by the
following persons:

1. Spouses, ascendants and descendants, or relatives by affinity in the same
line;

2. The widowed spouse with respect to the property which belonged to the
deceased spouse before the same shall have passed into the possession
of another; and

3. Brothers and sisters and brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, if living
together.

5. REVISED PENAL CODE
Article 247

[Anyone] “ . . .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 any serious physical injury,
shall suffer the penalty of destierro.”
[Parents] “ . . .with respect to their daughters under eighteen years of age, and
their seducer, while the daughters are living with their parents.”

6. REVISED PENAL CODE
Article 287

Any person who, by means of violence, shall seize anything belonging to his
debtor for the purpose of applying the same to the payment of the debt, shall
suffer the penalty of arresto mayor in its minimum period and a fine equivalent to
the value of the thing, but in no case less than 75 pesos.
Any other coercions or unjust vexations shall be punished by arresto menor or a
fine ranging from 5 pesos to 200 pesos, or both.

7. REPUBLIC ACT NO. 1937
AN ACT TO REVISE AND CODIFY THE TARIFF AND CUSTOMS LAWS OF
THE PHILIPPINES

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