Dear PAO,

Before my husband died, he told me that he wanted me to re-marry if he dies due to his illness. We were not able to conceive any child, so he wanted me to have a family, he said. He died last January 2025. I met someone in April 2025, and we plan to marry in July 2025. However, someone told me that there is a crime in the Philippines which punishes a widow who marries another man within 301 days from the death of her husband. Will I be penalized under the law in case I would marry another man just six months after my first husband died?

Geraldine

Dear Geraldine,

Before we discuss Republic Act (RA) 10655, the law that decriminalizes premature marriages, we should first understand the previous law, Article 351 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) where it is stated that:

“ARTICLE 351. Premature Marriages. — Any widow who shall marry within three hundred and one 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, shall be punished by arresto mayor and fine not exceeding 500 pesos.

“The same penalties shall be imposed upon 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 days after the legal separation.”

Previously, the said law penalized a widow who marries another man within 301 days from the date of death of her husband, or before the delivery of a child if she was pregnant at the time of her husband’s death.

However, this is no longer the case. On March 13, 2015, then President Benigno Aquino III approved Republic Act (RA) 10655 or “An Act repealing the crime of premature marriage under Article 351 of the Revised Penal Code.” Under Section 1 of the said law, Article 351 of the RPC was repealed, to quote:

“Section 1. Without prejudice to the provisions of the Family Code on paternity and filiation, Article 351 of Act No. 3815, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code, punishing the crime of premature marriage committed by a woman, is hereby repealed.”

The repeal of Article 351 of the Revised Penal Code is in line with the equal protection clause provided in the 1987 Philippine Constitution, as Article 351 of the said Code curtails the women’s right to marry and may also be violative of the equal protection clause because the said prohibition was only applicable to a widow and not to a widower.

In your case, if you remarry in July 2025, you may not be penalized under the law even if it happened just six months after the death of your first husband because our country has now decriminalized premature marriages.

We hope that we were able to answer your queries. This advice was based solely on the facts you have narrated and our appreciation of the same. Our opinion may vary when other facts are changed or elaborated.

We appreciate your trust and support.

Editor’s note: Dear PAO is a daily column of the Public Attorney’s Office. Questions for Chief Acosta may be sent to [email protected]