FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC ) 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
1 
First Regular Session 
1 
SENATE 
S.No. 
290 
Introduced by Senator Richard J. Gordon 
EXPLANATORY NOTE 
The crime of premature marriages in the Revised Penal Code punishes any widow who 
shall marry within three hundred and one (301) days from the date of the death of her husband, 
or before having delivered if she shall have been pregnant at the time of his death, and any 
woman whose marriage shall have been annulled or dissolved, if she shall marry before her 
delivery or before the expiration of the period of three hundred and one (301) days after the 
legal separation, with the penalty of arresfo mayor and a fine not exceeding five hundred pesos 
(PhP500). 
The purpose of the law in punishing premature marriages is to prevent doubtful 
paternity. It is intended to prevent confusion in connection with paternity and filiation, inasmuch 
as the widow might have conceived and become pregnant by her late husband or a woman 
might have conceived and become pregnant by her former husband in a previously annulled or 
dissolved marriage. 
Given the available technology and conveniences of the present times where the issue 
of paternity and filiation may easily be resolved, the crime of premature marriages is no longer 
relevant. In the Family Code, there are no more restrictions for a widow or a woman from an 
annulled or dissolved marriage to marry again relative to the matter of paternity and filiation. 
Art. 168 of the Family Code even creates a presumption that if the marriage is 
terminated and the mother contracted another marriage within three hundred (300) days after 
such termination of the former marriage, in the absence of proof to the contrary, a child born 
before one hundred eighty (180) days after the solemnization of the subsequent marriage is 
considered to have been conceived during the former marriage, provided it be born within three 
hundred (300) days after the termination of the former marriage, while a child born after one 
hundred eighty (180) days following the celebration of the subsequent marriage is considered 
to have been conceived during such a marriage, even though it be born within three hundred 
(300) days after the termination of the former marriage. As civil law has recognized the 
contracting of a subsequent marriage by a woman within three hundred (300) days from the 
termination of the former marriage, criminal law should likewise be updated and the crime of 
premature marriages should be repealed. 
ON 


FOURTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC ) 
OF THE PHILIPPINES 
) 
First Regular Session 
) 
SENATE 
S.No. 
2aQ 
~- 
Introduced by Senator Richard J. Gordon 
AN ACT REPEALING THE CRIME OF PREMATURE MARRIAGES IN ARTICLE 351 OF 
THE REVISED PENAL CODE 
Be if enacted by fhe Senafe and fhe House of Represenfafives of the Philippines in 
Congress assembled: 
1 
2 
Code is hereby repealed. 
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5 
circulation in the Philippines. 
6 
Approved, 
SECTION 1. The crime of Premature Marriages in Article 351 of the Revised Penal 
Sec. 2. Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect after fifteen (15) days following the 
completion of its publication either in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general