A proposed law, dubbed the “My Husband’s Lover” bill after a television show about a man who has an affair with another man, has been filed at the House of Representatives. The bill seeks to penalize adultery with a same-sex lover.
“I am supportive of gender equality and rights of the LGBT community but we must not limit its concept with the positive side of things. Just like in marriage, equality should be present ‘for better or for worse’ meaning, equality must be upheld both in the rewards as well as in the sanctions for violations handed by society through innovative laws,” The bill’s author Albay Representative Edcel Lagman Jr. said.
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According to a Sun Star Online report, Lagman intends to amend “obsolete” provisions in the Revised Penal Code to include same-sex adultery. Currently, the RPC only which penalizes adultery by a wife. A cheating husband faces the penalty of concubinage for “keeping a mistress.”
Adultery is punishable with up to six years in prison while concubinage is punishable with imprisonment of as little as six months in prison. The husband’s mistress will also be punished with the archaic penalty of destierro or banishment from the residence.
“But what if a married woman engages in a sexual activity with another woman? Conversely, what if the married man engages in a sexual activity with another man? Under the present law, no crime is committed here,” Lagman said. Only crimes against the heart.
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Photo: Office of the President
