Only spouses can sue for adultery, SC rules

MANILA, Philippines — Adultery cases can be filed only by the husband or wife of the respondent, the Supreme Court’s Second Division has said, stressing that the law allows the offended spouse to decide whether to file a case or to handle the matter privately.

The ruling written by Associate Justice Antonio Kho, Jr. and dated May 19, 2025, but released to the public only on Tuesday, effectively reversed the decision handed down by a Pasay City Regional Trial Court (RTC) in 2024.

The RTC had ordered the reinstatement of an adultery and grave threats case filed by a man against his wife and her supposed lover.

This was after a Metropolitan Trial Court dismissed the case on the grounds that it was not filed by the man himself but by his representative.

The RTC, however, overturned the lower court’s ruling. It said the case was valid and met the requirements of the law because the man had attached his complaint-affidavit to the complaint filed by his representative.

Jurisdictional requirements

In its ruling, the high tribunal’s Second Division said the complaint against the offending party did not adhere to the “jurisdictional requirements” for the filing of an adultery case.

“Although the aggrieved spouse submitted his own complaint-affidavit accusing (respondents) of adultery, it was only included as an annex to the complaint-affidavit … Clearly, the jurisdictional requirement for filing an adultery case under Rule 110, Section 5 of the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure and Article 344 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) was not met,” it stressed.

Citing the Revised Rules of Criminal Rules and the Revised Penal Code (RPC), the Second Division noted that such cases are private issues “out of consideration for the aggrieved party who might prefer to suffer the outrage in silence rather than go through the scandal of a public trial.”

“Adultery, being a private offense, cannot be prosecuted except upon a complaint filed by the offended spouse who cannot institute the criminal prosecution without including both the guilty parties, if they are both alive, nor in any case, if he shall have consented or pardoned the offenders,” it said.

In his concurring opinion, Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen pushed for strict compliance with the law when prosecuting “private crimes” such as adultery. He said that cases of infidelity are a “private matter that the government should not interfere with.” /cb