Dear PAO,
I am an exporter who spends most of the year traveling to key cities around the world to conduct business. Last year, when I came home unexpectedly to our house, I discovered that my wife rarely stayed at our conjugal home and was renting a townhouse in another subdivision. Worse, my teenage son later confessed to me that he had previously walked in on his mother and a local businessman holding hands, hugging and kissing while in bed inside that townhouse.
I want to file a criminal case for adultery against my wife and her lover. However, my neighbor tells me the case will just get dismissed because nobody actually caught them in the exact physical act of sexual intercourse. Is it true that direct evidence of the actual sexual act is required to prove adultery?
Arturito
Dear Arturito,
The first paragraph of Article 333 of the Revised Penal Code provides: “Adultery is committed by any married woman who shall have sexual intercourse with a man not her husband and by the man who has carnal knowledge of her knowing her to be married, even if the marriage be subsequently declared void.”
Because of the inherently private nature of the offense, adultery is rarely performed in the presence of eyewitnesses. Consequently, jurisprudence establishes that circumstantial evidence is sufficient to prove the same, provided it leads to a logical conclusion of guilt. By definition, “[c]ircumstantial evidence may be characterized as that evidence that proves a fact or series of facts from which the facts in issue may be established by inference. It is not a weaker form of evidence vis-à-vis direct evidence as case law has consistently recognized that it may even surpass the latter in weight and probative force.” (People v. Elever Jaen Y Morante, GR 241946, July 29, 2019, Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe)
Citing established jurisprudence, the Supreme Court emphasized this rule in Valencia v. People (GR 244657, Feb. 12, 2024, J. Lazaro-Javier): “[P]roof of the sexual intercourse between a married woman and a man who is not her husband may be established by circumstantial evidence.”
The same case, citing United States v. Feliciano (GR L-12724, Aug. 10, 1917, Associate Justice George Malcolm), ruled that “due to the nature of the crime of adultery, there may be some difficulty in establishing the elements of the offense by direct evidence.”
In the above-mentioned case of Feliciano, the Court considered the following circumstances sufficient to sustain a conviction for adultery: The wife left her husband and lived with another man in a rented house; the landlord regarded them as husband and wife; a photograph captured their intimate relationship; and a witness saw them sleeping together in scant apparel.
Hence, your neighbor is mistaken. Direct evidence of the physical act of sexual intercourse is not an absolute prerequisite to secure a conviction for the crime of adultery. Circumstantial evidence may be presented to prove it. In your narration, the fact that your wife moved out into a separate townhouse, coupled with the eyewitness testimony of your son observing acts of marital intimacy and shared bed space with another man, may be used, together with other surrounding circumstances, to prove that your wife committed the crime of adultery.
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We hope that we were able to answer your queries. This advice was solely based on the facts you have narrated and our appreciation of the same. Our opinion may vary when other facts are changed or elaborated.
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