Mrs. Glenda Castro Andal (not her real name) is the legal wife of Mr. Andres Andal (also not his real name), the husband. Husband has a young secretary (Gayle Bernardo), single, whom he falls in love with (“mistress”). Their union produced an illegitimate son. Husband and mistress traveled to the US, got a quickie divorce and got married. Mistress now assumes the name Mrs. Gayle Andal.
Legal wife and husband have two grown-up children. Mistress has one grown-up son (illegitimate) also with husband. Mistress, with connivance of her son, was able to persuade/coerce/convince husband to change all documents (banks, insurance companies, powers of attorney, etc.) to name her (mistress) as signatory, beneficiary, authorized representative. Husband, in his early 80s, is quite frail with occasional memory lapses.
Legal wife and the two children have lost all the rights due them because of the machinations of mistress and illegitimate son. Legal wife now wants to know what case she can file against the mistress. The children do not want any case of bigamy or concubinage filed against their father and the mistress (under Philippine law, such complaint will necessarily include the father as an indispensable party.)
This hypothetical case is not unique. There are legal wives out there with husbands who have many other “wives” who use the husbands’ surname and hold themselves as the legal wives.
I would advise a criminal case for usurpation of civil status.
Article 348 of the Revised Penal Code penalizesany person who shall usurp the civil status of another. A graver penalty will be imposed should he/she do so for the purpose of defrauding the offended party or his/her heirs.
The term civil status is defined as one’s public station, or the rights, duties, capacities and incapacities that determine a person to a given class. Republic Act 3753, otherwise known as the Law of Registry of Civil Status, provides that civil status of persons include data on the birth, death, marriage, annulment, divorce, legitimation, adoption, acknowledgment, naturalization and change of name.
Relevantly, the term usurpation or usurp, in its general sense, came from the Latin word usurpare, which translates as “seize for use.” Hence, usurpation of civil status is the act of seizing or taking someone’s status in relation to his or her birth or marriage, and infringing upon his or her rights so as to enjoy the latter’s rights, filiation, paternity or conjugal rights, including his or her profession or public status.
Unfortunately, there has been no jurisprudence on this issue of usurpation by a mistress of the civil status and rights of a legal wife. However, according to an eminent commentator of criminal law here in the Philippines, the crime of usurpation is committed when a person represents himself/herself to be another and assumes the filiation or the parental or conjugal rights of such another person. Thereafter, an impersonation example was provided by the said commentator. Impersonation is, however, not the same as usurpation. A person who impersonates pretends to be the person impersonated.
On the one hand, it could be argued that the mistress is not impersonating the first wife; she just claims to be the “new wife.” However, even if you turn the world upside down, the husband cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, have two legal wives. Could we say that the second wife is usurping the civil status of the first wife, or is the penal provision really limited to impersonation?
I think it is high time that we revisit the law on this matter, because really, you cannot have two Mrs. Andals. To all the legal wives, do not sleep on your rights. Wake up and assert them!
Happy Womens Month!
1 comment
Good morning. Legal wife here. Estranged husband for 10years met his untimely death. Now processing his death claims for our child. But the mother doesn’t want to indulge me the personal documents of my husband. Like his IDs and passport. What are my legal procedure to take in order to obtain the said documents? Thank you atty