Why a Leila, not a Rody, serves more jail time

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 When I was in a huddle with some politicians in a recent government function, I eavesdropped on the conversation between a lawyer and his lawyer-son regarding my recent column titled “The Immoral Senator De Lima”.

I wrote there that the controversial and hated lady senator could not be sued by the People of the Philippines because her offense of concubinage was a private crime.

It means it was only Norlyn Magalanes Dayan, the wife of De Lima’s paramour her driver Ronnie, who could sue her with that criminal case and no other person or institution.

“Are concubinage and adultery supposed to be public crime?” the lawyer asked his son.

“No, it’s only rape”.

When I bumped into fellow radio commentator Ruel Camba, I told him about the lawyers and that private crime.

“Ina-antay ko lang i correct ako ng old lawyer that concubinage is not a private crime, e ni researched ko iyong anak ng bakang column ko na iyon,” I told Ruel with a funny bravado.

“This is the first time I heard about private crime, I thought all crimes are public,” he excitedly quipped.
"No, it's just like toilets, may private toilet may public toilet din," I sheepishly retorted.

Private crime, to the uninitiated who read this blog, is an offense which cannot be prosecuted except upon a complaint filed by the aggrieved party (batasnatin.com).

 Do you know that a reader, a niece of a congressman, of my blog reacted on that same column?

“Adultery should have equal punishment for both men and women. We need to stop forgiving male politicians even if they have multiple partners because "boys will be boys". Public servants should be tried equally and judged equally (by the court) regardless of their gender and not be attacked because of it,” an excerpt of her comment after I wrote that if Senator Leila de Lima was a man the media would not be feeding her with so much intensity to the excited and drooling masses with the series of controversies that hounded her like crazy like rumors that she had sex video with her driver and after acknowledging at Winnie Monsod’s TV program that she had emotional relationship with Dayan.

 If Leila is a potbellied politico who has mistresses, he would be looked up with envy by his peers, I said.

It’s a badge of machismo my dear Procopio, son of a gun!

As what the Washington Post wrote in 1998: “One leader quick to voice sympathy with (U.S President Bill) Clinton was Philippine President Joseph Estrada, known for 10 children born of his wife and some of his many extramarital affairs. During his recent presidential campaign, Estrada was known to joke that "Clinton and I both have sex scandals – he has the scandals and I just have sex."

I told the niece of the solon that an offending woman in the Philippines is heavily punished by maximum period ranges from 4 years, 2 months and 1 day to 6 years imprisonment when she committed adultery compared to a man in a concubinage charged who faces a maximum period of imprisonment only of 4 years and one day.

“It's time to whisper to your tito Congressman to amend this unequal law against women as provided by the Revised Penal Code,” I added.

So what was the wisdom behind these lopsided laws passed by our congress decades ago?

I told Ruel that former Senator Arturo Tolentino (or was it another author) argued on his authored annotated Civil Law Book that the heavier penalty given to an immoral married woman who cohabited with a married man was because of the wife’s sexual intercourse with another man may introduce illegitimate children into a union of marriage and the husband should be obliged to support a child not his own.

“Pati ang apelyido ng cuckold dala-dala pa ng bata na ang ama ay ang driver ni misis!” I cried.

“But a horn-dog could impregnated those mistresses he had and not soiling the sanctity of the home, just like what the adulterous wife who has baby bump, because no child live under the custody and abode of an affronted wife,” I told Ruel. 

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)