NextGen Day

A former ship worker who had been found guilty by a lower court of neglecting to provide for his wife financially has been cleared by the Supreme Court (SC).

The guy received a prison sentence of up to six years for breaking Republic Act (RA) 9262, also known as the law against violence against women and their children.

The SC explained in its decision in the case docketed as GR 255877, published online on Thursday, that a husband’s lack or incapacity to provide for his wife financially does not inevitably result in his criminal prosecution for breaking the legislation against violence against women.

“The law requires both partners in a marriage to equally contribute to support. The judgment stated that the husband’s duty to provide for his wife was not a one-way track.

“The wife has an equal responsibility to assist her husband. The legislation did not mean to make it more difficult for the husband to support his wife or to institutionalize criminal prosecution to make him pay support.

The SC stated that even while RA 9262 was passed to protect women, it was not intended to restrict or undervalue their ability to care for and support themselves.

“Women cannot be treated as helpless victims disadvantaged by the law. The wife was a strong individual who could easily support herself. She ran a sari-sari (retail) shop and worked as a massage therapist for pay. The SC decided she wasn’t a helpless victim who was forced to rely on her husband’s income to survive.

According to the SC, it would be “gravely incorrect” to interpret and apply the legislation in a way that would continue gender inequities that shouldn’t exist.

The Court of Appeals’ decision, which had upheld the trial court’s order, was overturned by the decision.

After marriage in 2002, the former couple moved abroad for their husband’s job in 2004. The union had no offspring.

After a few months of working as a sailor, the husband stopped sending money to his wife and advised her to consider moving in with her parents in the province.

In 2016, the wife filed a lawsuit against the husband, alleging that he had violated RA 9262. She claimed that the husband had “wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously commit psychological violence and economic abuse upon his wife, by there and then abandoning her and denying her financial support, thereby causing substantial, mental or emotional anguish, public ridicule or humiliation to his wife, the damage and prejudice of the said offended party.”

The husband stated that when his parents were diagnosed with cancer, he was only compelled to wed his wife and had to quit providing financial support. When he returned in 2007, he discovered employment but said he didn’t speak to or provide for his wife.

2017 the trial court found the spouse guilty and imposed a $100,000 fine and counseling.

In 2019, the CA rejected the husband’s appeal, finding that cutting off communication and financial support had left the wife in misery and severe distress.

If the wife “truly needed financial support, it is only expected based on human experience that she would have at least exerted efforts to obtain it,” the SC concluded. She did almost nothing to obtain support before to initiating this criminal case, which raises severe questions about her need for it.

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