Re: Philippine courts' jurisdiction; Psychological violence committed through marital infidelity occurred or is occurring [outside] the country.
May Philippine courts [exercise jurisdiction] over an offense constituting psychological violence under R.A. No. 9262 (Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act of 2004) committed through marital infidelity, when the alleged illicit relationship occurred or is occurring [outside] the country?
This Court held that "contrary to the interpretation of the RTC, what R.A. No. 9262 criminalizes is not the marital infidelity per se but the psychological violence causing mental or emotional suffering on the wife. Otherwise stated, it is the violence inflicted under the said circumstances that the law seeks to outlaw. Marital infidelity as cited in the law is only one of the various acts by which psychological violence may be committed. [...] the mental or emotional suffering of the victim is an [essential] and distinct [element] in the commission of the offense.
Section 7 provides that the case may be filed where the crime or any of its elements was committed at the option of the complainant.
What may be gleaned from Section 7 of R.A. No. 9262 is that the law contemplates that acts of violence against women and their children may manifest as [transitory or continuing crimes]; meaning that some acts material and essential thereto and requisite in their consummation occur in one municipality or territory, while some occur in another.
In such cases, the court wherein any of the crime's essential and material acts have been committed maintains jurisdiction to try the case; it being understood that the first court taking cognizance of the same excludes the other. Thus, a person charged with a continuing or transitory crime may be [validly tried] in any municipality or territory where the offense was [in part] committed.
(Emphasis supplied).
✍️⚖️👨⚖️ AAA vs. BBB
January 11, 2018 G.R. No. 212448
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