SC recognizes common-law marriages

SunStar Cebu
Friday, June 23, 2006


A Lankback decision of the Supreme Court (SC) has given the green light for “conjugal arrangements” sans marriage, if their religion allows it.

Ruling 9 to 5, with one justice taking no part in the voting, the High Court dismissed the complaint against Soledad Escritor, a court interpreter and member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watch Tower and Bible Tract Society, who was accused of “disgraceful” and “immoral act” for living in with one Luciano Quilapio Jr. without the benefit of marriage and for having borne a child with him.

Associate Justice Reynato Puno said the SC gave credence on Escritor’s defense that her “conjugal arrangement” with Quilapio is sanctioned by their congregation and religious beliefs.

The SC noted that in the eyes of Escritor’s church, “there is nothing immoral about the conjugal arrangement between Escritor and Quilapio and they remain members in good standing in the congregation.”

“The court recognizes that state interest must be upheld in order that freedoms, including religious freedom, may be enjoyed,” the High Tribunal ruled.

Accommodation

The SC also upheld Escritor’s right to her conjugal union as it chose to adhere to the “benevolent neutrality approach in the Constitution that gives room for accommodation of religious exercises as required by the Free Exercise Clause.”

“Thus, we find that in this particular case and under these distinct circumstances, respondent Escritor’s conjugal arrangement cannot be penalized as she has made out a case for exemption from the law based on her fundamental right to freedom of religion.” the court said.

The SC approved Escritor’s arguments that after 10 years in such a conjugal union, she and her husband executed in July 28, 1991 a “declaration of pledging faithfulness,” which “allows members of the congregation who have been abandoned by their spouses to enter into marital relations.”

Elders

Escritor said the union was approved by the “elders of the congregation” after confirming that her husband had left her.

The complaint was filed last July 27, 2000 by Alenjandro Estrada before a Las Piñas court, claiming that such union constitutes an “immoral act that tarnished the image of the court.”

But in the opinion of the five dissenters led by Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban, they warned that the ruling could open the floodgates for people to use religion as an excuse to enter into illegal and immoral conjugal union.

Religious cover

“The majority opinion will make every religion a separate republic, making religion a haven for criminal conduct that otherwise would be punishable under the law of the land. Today concubinage, tomorrow bigamy, will enjoy protection from criminal sanction under the new doctrine poised by the majority opinion,” said Associate Justice Antonio Carpio in a dissenting opinion.

“This case is about a religious cover for an obviously criminal act,” the dissenters said.

In her separate opinion, Associate Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago sought for the suspension of Escritor for six months for her disgraceful conduct in court.

“The exacting standards of ethics and morality imposed upon court judges and court employees are required to maintain the people’s faith in the court as a dispenser of justice, and whose image is mirrored by their actuations,” she said.