Filipino jailed for not sending money to his wife gets acquitted in Supreme Court ruling

The court said that in a marriage, the woman has an equal obligation to provide support to her husband

By Web Desk

Published: Fri 16 Jun 2023, 6:17 PM

Last updated: Fri 16 Jun 2023, 6:18 PM

A man in the Philippines — who was sentenced to up to six years in prison for failing to financially support his wife — has been acquitted of charges in a Supreme Court ruling.

The country's apex court ruled that in a marriage, financial obligations are not solely the husbands' duty.

“The obligation to provide support is imposed by the law mutually upon both spouses. The obligation is not a one-way street for the husband to support his wife,” according to the decision as reported in the state's Philippine News Agency (PNA).

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It explained that a man's inability to provide funds to his wife is not automatically considered a violation of the Philippines' law on violence against women.

In fact, the court said, the woman has the same obligation to provide financial support to her husband.

"The law certainly did not intend to impose a heavier burden on the husband to provide support for his wife, or institutionalise criminal prosecution as a measure to enforce support from him,” it added.

The woman involved in the case was a massage therapist and she owned a small neighbourhood store. The former couple tied the knot in 2002 and in 2004, the husband left the country to work abroad. They didn't have any children.

After a few months of working abroad as a seafarer, the man stopped sending money to his wife and told her to consider living with her parents, the PNA report said.

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The woman then filed a case against him, saying he “willfully, unlawfully and feloniously commit psychological violence and economic abuse upon his wife, by then and there abandoning her and denying her financial support".

It was a "forced marriage", according to the man, adding that he had to stop sending her money because his parents fell ill with cancer. "Upon his return in 2007, he found work but admitted he did not contact his wife nor send financial support," the report said.

In 2017, the trial court convicted the husband and ordered a fine of Php100,000, and psychological counselling. The Court of Appeals denied the husband’s plea in 2019, saying stopping financial support and communication caused the wife suffering.

In the Supreme Court's ruling, it said 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 fact that she did not do anything whatsoever to get support prior to filing this criminal case casts serious doubt on her claim that she needed it.”

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