Concubinage: Meaning in Philippine Law

Article 334 punishes any husband who does one of three acts:

1. keeps a mistress in the conjugal dwelling;
2. has sexual intercourse, under scandalous circumstances, with a woman who is not his wife; or
3. cohabits with her in any other place.

The husband is punished by prision correccional in its minimum and medium periods, from 6 months and 1 day to 4 years and 2 months (Articles 27 and 76). The second paragraph sets the penalty of the woman:

Destierro means the person may not enter the place or places named in the sentence, nor come within the radius it sets (Article 87). See Article 334 for the full explanation.

In Singgit v. People (2023), the Supreme Court listed the elements: the man is married; he committed one of the three acts; and the woman knew him to be married. On the third way, the Court said that "the term "cohabit" means to dwell together, in the manner of husband and wife, for some period of time, as distinguished from occasional, transient interviews for unlawful intercourse." For that third way, it does not matter whether the place is a private or conjugal dwelling, and scandalous circumstances need not be shown.

Only the offended wife. Rule 110, Section 5 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure says adultery and concubinage "shall not be prosecuted except upon a complaint filed by the offended spouse", that both guilty parties must be included if both are alive, and that the case cannot be filed if the offended spouse consented or pardoned the offenders. In Busuego v. Office of the Ombudsman (2013), the Court held that a wife's belief that her husband had stopped womanizing was not condonation of the specific acts of concubinage charged.

Adultery under Article 333 is committed by a wife, and what must be proved is sexual intercourse with a man not her husband. Concubinage is committed by a husband, and one of the three ways must be proved. The husband's prison term is lighter than the wife's in adultery, and the woman gets destierro instead of prison. Sexual infidelity by either spouse is also a ground for legal separation under Article 55 of the Family Code.

For the two crimes side by side, see adultery vs concubinage.

Made-up illustration: Ana learns that her husband Ben has been living for several months with another woman in another town, and that the woman knows Ben is married. Living together for some period of time in any other place is the third way in Article 334. If Ana files, the complaint must name both Ben and the woman. Whether they really cohabited is decided on the evidence.

For pardon, the time limit and the link to VAWC, see Adultery and concubinage and How to file a VAWC case.