TENEBRO VS CA
(G.R. No. 93410 May 7, 1991)
FORCIBLE ABDUCTION WITH RAPE
FACTS
1. Veronico Tenebro contracted marriage with Leticia Ancajas
in 1990. The two lived together continuously and without
interruption until the later part of 1991, when Tenebro informed
Ancajas that he had been previously married to a certain Hilda
Villareyes in 1986.
2. Petitioner thereafter left the conjugal dwelling which he
shared with Ancajas, stating that he was going to cohabit with
Villareyes. In 1993, petitioner contracted yet another marriage
with a certain Nilda Villegas. Ancajas thereafter filed a
complaint for bigamy against petitioner.
3. Villegas countered that his marriage with Villareyes cannot
be proven as a fact there being no record of such. He further
argued that his second marriage, with Ancajas, has been
declared void ab initio due to psychological incapacity. Hence
he cannot be charged for bigamy.
ISSUE
WON Tenebro is guilty of bigamy
HELD
YES.
The prosecution was able to establish the validity of the first
marriage. As a second or subsequent marriage contracted
during the subsistence of petitioners valid marriage to
Villareyes, petitioners marriage to Ancajas would be null and
void ab initio completely regardless of petitioners
psychological capacity or incapacity. Since a marriage
contracted during the subsistence of a valid marriage is
automatically void, the nullity of this second marriage is not
per se an argument for the avoidance of criminal liability for
bigamy. Pertinently, Article 349 of the Revised Penal Code
criminalizes any person who shall contract a second or
subsequent marriage before the former marriage has been
legally dissolved, or before the absent spouse has been declared
presumptively dead by means of a judgment rendered in the
proper proceedings. A plain reading of the law, therefore,
would indicate that the provision penalizes the mere act of
contracting a second or a subsequent marriage during the
subsistence of a valid marriage.of forcible abduction is
absorbed in the crime of rape if the main purpose of the
accused is to rape the victim.