Revised Penal Code, Art. 349

Statute

Revised Penal Code

Article

Art. 349

Topic

Bigamy

Year

1930

The provision

Key points

Article 349 penalizes bigamy with prisión mayor. It is committed by a person who contracts a second or subsequent marriage before the first marriage has been legally dissolved, or before an absent spouse has been judicially declared presumptively dead in the proper proceedings.

The elements are a first valid (or at least subsisting) marriage, the absence of legal dissolution, a second marriage, and its valid celebration in form. A recurring issue is whether a judicial declaration of nullity of the first marriage must precede the second; the provision is read with Family Code Article 36 and with the rules on prejudicial questions in the Rules of Court.

A recurring question under the article is whether a person whose first marriage is later declared void may still be convicted for contracting a second marriage before obtaining that judicial declaration. The provision's reference to a marriage that has not been 'legally dissolved' is why a judicial declaration of nullity is generally required before remarriage, and why a pending civil case on the first marriage's validity may raise a prejudicial question under Rule 111. It is read with Family Code Article 36 and Article 40.

Cases applying this article

• Tenebro v. Court of Appeals G.R. No. 150758 (2004)
• Mercado v. Tan G.R. No. 137110 (2000)

Related provisions

• Revised Penal Code Art. 333 — Adultery
• Revised Penal Code Art. 334 — Concubinage
• Family Code Art. 36
• Rules of Court Rule 111, Sec. 7

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