Roco wants same penalties for infidelity

CALASIAO, Pangasinan — Presidential candidate Raul Roco wants the crimes of adultery and concubinage stricken off the Revised Penal Code and replaced with a "non-discriminatory" offense to be simply known as "infidelity."

Speaking on the campaign trail here yesterday, Roco said if elected president on May 10, he would ask Congress to amend the law to make the penalty equal for philandering husbands and wives.

"The principle in the Constitution states having fundamental equality between men and women in nation-building," he said.

Roco said he hopes Congress passes a bill seeking to redefine adultery and concubinage into "infidelity" to erase the distinction between male and female philanderers.

"There’s a difference in the penalty between concubinage and adultery," he said. "Each and every act of adultery is subject to separate penalty of two to six years (imprisonment), I think."

Roco said the bias against women in criminal law could be traced to the medieval period in Europe, when the queen gave birth to the next king.

"Motherhood is a fact, fatherhood is an act of faith," he said.

"You know who is the mother, you hope you are the father. That is why there is a highest penalty for adultery. But in today’s world, that seems unfair."

Roco said the law should punish infidelity in the same way, whether it be committed by a man or a woman.

"If a woman is punished by two to six years (imprisonment), let the man be punished by two to six years (imprisonment)," he said. — Sheila Crisostomo