Attempted marital rape

I’ve heard reports of wives finding a source of relief from burdensome relationships in the passage of the Anti-Rape Law, but I have not actually put my hands on a case of attempted marital rape filed in the courts, until I was given a copy of a complaint-affidavit by a very concerned medical doctor. What makes this case doubly interesting is that the respondent is the son of a Philippine legislator. The names of parties concerned will eventually be known by the public in time.

According to the complaint-affidavit filed by petitioner who we shall call C., she and her husband were married in the United States in 1992, and moved to the Philippines a year later. The union bore three children. During the last three years, C and her husband, F, have been sleeping in separate bedrooms and not have any sexual relations. The estrangement, according to C, was aggravated by C’s discovery of F’s extra-marital affair, and during their confrontations, F threatened to take the children away from C.

Two months ago, on March 25, F took his and some of C’s belongings away with the intent of abandoning C and the kids. The next day, however, he returned at 11 in the morning while C and the children were watching television in the master bedroom.

F announced that he was taking the children with him, but C pleaded against it, and saying he just could not do that, at which F said, "Of course, I can, baby, I’m taking them with me." C replied, "I’m not your baby." F pushed her and pinned her down on the sofa and shouted, "Yes, you’re my baby. We’re gonna do it here, right now, baby. Let’s do it now." He was on top of her, and C was "gravely distressed" since the kids were watching them struggling on the sofa.

The complaint-affidavit relates: "While I was down on the sofa with F on top of me, the children were crying loudly and screaming for everything to stop. I was screaming and crying as well and I shouted, ‘Help! Please, someone call the police!’ in the hope that the maids would hear, go inside the house and help stop F."

F then "forced his lips down on mine and tried to kiss me by inserting his tongue inside my mouth. As I did not want F to have sex with me or to kiss me, I used all of my strength and force to push him off from on top of my body. However, my efforts proved futile since F was very heavy and his hands were pinning my arms down to the sofa. I tried to avoid his kiss by spitting at him. However, he still forced his lips hard down on mine." In the course of the struggle, F suddenly screamed as if in pain and jumped off from on top of C. C saw him holding his fingers to his lips. F afterwards shouted, "I’m gonna kill you!’"

C was able to grab her cellular phone and she ran to the kitchen to call her lawyer, leaving the door ajar so she would see or hear whatever F was doing or saying to their kids. C was crying as she related what had transpired to her lawyer. F saw her talking on the cellular phone, and said, "Shit!" C ran to the bedroom, with F following her. F told the children that their mother had hurt him. Then he left the house.

After getting hold of her bearings and pacifying the kids, C went to the swanky village’s security office to report what had transpired. Then she proceeded to the city police station to make a formal police report; there she was referred to the women’s desk at the Muntinlupa city hall compound. A lady officer interviewed her and later issued a written certification on the events.

C executed the complaint-affidavit "to attest to the truth of all the foregoing" and to support a criminal complaint against F for the crime of Attempted Rape as penalized under Article 266-A of the Revised Penal Code. The affidavit, filed March 29, 2004, was certified by Atty. Florante E. Tuy of the Department of Justice, Office of the City Prosecutor, City of Muntinlupa.

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