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BY GORDON Q. GUILLERGAN
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Friday, March 24, 2017
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“In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” – Paul McCartney
WHEN the heart breaks it doesn’t break even, as the song goes. This I find to be true. In a relationship there can be no equal love, for the other would love greater than the other.
Parang Article 351 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC). Kung lalaki ka, pwedeng mag-move on anytime. Pag babae, kailangan maghintay. Because under the said law, any widow who shall marry within 301 days 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 P500. Unfair to the women.
Well, that was before. On March 13, 2015 President Benigno Aquino III signed into law Republic Act (RA) 10655 which repealed Article 351 of the RPC. Meaning, the act of “premature marriage” has been decriminalized.
“Without prejudice to the provisions of the Family Code on paternity and filiation, Article 351 of Act No. 3815, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code, punishing the crime of premature marriage committed by a woman, is hereby repealed.” (Section 1, RA 10655).
The law on premature marriages under Article 351 of the RPC is discriminatory and restrains the right of a woman to marry under the stated circumstances; no such penalty is imposed on the man who does the same. It is, in effect, an enforced mourning period on the part of the woman but no such imposition on men.
Many who know our laws by heart would contend that these were crafted having least protection for women. Like in cases of adultery and concubinage. Under adultery, there is a need to prove only that the woman is married; that she had sexual intercourse with a man not her husband; that as regards the man with whom she has sexual intercourse, he must know her to be married is essential.
Under concubinage, there is a need to prove that man must be married; that he committed any of the following – keeping a mistress in the conjugal dwelling; having sexual intercourse under scandalous circumstances with a woman who is not his wife; cohabiting with her in any other place. It is quite difficult to prove the element of cohabiting, which is taken as “to dwell together, in the manner of husband and wife, for some period of time” as distinguished from occasional transient interviews for unlawful intercourse, and needs the element of consistency and continuity of the act.
But with the advent of the Magna Carta for Women, or even before 2009 when RA 9710 was passed, women have been fighting for their economic, political and socio-cultural realities affecting their condition, and the State affirms the role of women in nation-building and ensures the substantive equality of women and men.
Honestly, in relationships in general, hurt is never equal. And that is life. I have long believed that in relationship there can never be equal affection. And I have always held that if equal affection can never be, let the more loving one be me. First, because men tend to stay in a relationship where they are constantly kept on their toes. Second, men, tend to get a little bored when everything is spoon-fed. We want challenge and always feel the need to conquer these challenges, hence we tend to be more loving, given it is the right woman and the circumstance.
However, the sad part of it is when it ends, a woman’s heart breaks far greater than man’s. Now, that part I can’t explain. This is not a fixed rule but this is how I commonly see things.
One thing is for sure though: it hurts the most when something ends without you doing something to salvage it. (gordon.qg@hotmail.com/PN)
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