1) What “Concubinage” Is Under Philippine Law

Concubinage is a crime defined and penalized under the Revised Penal Code (RPC), Article 334. It is gender-specific in its formulation: it penalizes a married man who engages in particular forms of illicit relations with a woman not his wife, and it also penalizes the woman (the “concubine”) under a different penalty.

This is distinct from Adultery (RPC, Article 333), which penalizes a married woman who has sexual intercourse with a man not her husband, and also penalizes her sexual partner.

The three punishable modes (RPC, Art. 334)

A married man commits concubinage by doing any of the following:

Keeping a mistress in the conjugal dwelling
Having sexual intercourse under scandalous circumstances with a woman not his wife
Cohabiting with such woman in any other place

Not every affair automatically fits concubinage. The law requires that the act fall into one of these three specific modes, each with its own evidentiary demands.

2) Elements and Proof: What Must Be Shown in Court

While the precise articulation varies in practice, proof generally centers on these core points:

The accused is legally married and the marriage subsists at the time of the acts.
The woman involved is not his wife.
The accused performed at least one of the three modes in Article 334.
Criminal intent is present; for the woman’s liability, knowledge of the man’s marital status is commonly critical in evaluating intent.

Practical meaning of the three modes

(A) “Keeping a mistress in the conjugal dwelling”

This implies more than a secret visit. “Keeping” suggests maintenance or continuing presence of the mistress in the home regarded as the conjugal dwelling.

(B) “Sexual intercourse under scandalous circumstances”

The intercourse must be attended by circumstances that create public scandal—i.e., the affair becomes notoriously offensive or openly known in a way that shocks community sensibilities, beyond private wrongdoing.

(C) “Cohabiting in any other place”

This focuses on living together as if spouses outside the conjugal home (e.g., sharing a residence), not merely meeting occasionally.

Evidence often used

Testimony from neighbors, household members, or witnesses of cohabitation and public conduct
Documentary and electronic evidence showing shared residence or public representation as a couple
Admissions, photographs, travel records, financial support patterns, and other circumstantial evidence

Because direct proof of sexual intercourse is rarely available, cases often rely heavily on circumstantial evidence, but it must still prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.

3) Penalties (and Why They Matter for Prescription)

Under RPC, Article 334:

For the husband: Prisión correccional in its minimum and medium periods
- Roughly: 6 months and 1 day up to 4 years and 2 months
For the concubine: Destierro
- A penalty involving banishment/prohibition from specified places or within a specified radius, as determined by the court.

These penalties matter because the prescriptive period of the crime is determined by the penalty prescribed by law.

4) The Prescriptive Period for Concubinage: The Core Rule

A) What is the prescriptive period?

Concubinage is punishable by prisión correccional (a correctional penalty). Under RPC, Article 90 (Prescription of Crimes), crimes punishable by correctional penalties generally prescribe in ten (10) years.

Bottom line: ✅ Concubinage generally prescribes in 10 years.

5) When the 10 Years Starts: Article 91 (Discovery, Continuing Crimes, Termination)

The question “prescribes in 10 years” is only half the story. The other half is: 10 years counted from when?

Under RPC, Article 91:

A) General rule: from discovery

Prescription begins to run from the day the crime is discovered by:

the offended party, or
the authorities, or
their agents.

In concubinage, the offended party is typically the wife, but “discovery” can also occur through law enforcement or other authorities depending on the circumstances.

B) Continuing crimes: from termination

Article 91 also provides that for continuing offenses, prescription begins to run from the day the crime is terminated.

This is crucial because some concubinage scenarios are naturally “continuing”:

Cohabitation (living together) tends to be continuing while the shared living arrangement exists.
Keeping a mistress in the conjugal dwelling can also be continuing while the arrangement persists.
Sexual intercourse under scandalous circumstances is often treated as event-based; depending on facts, each act may be viewed as a separate occurrence, but the “scandalous circumstances” can also be part of an ongoing public setup.

Practical takeaway

If the case theory is cohabitation or keeping a mistress, the safer analytical approach is that prescription commonly runs from termination of that arrangement, not merely from first discovery.
If the case is anchored on a discrete scandalous act, the computation may be more act-specific.

6) What Interrupts Prescription: Complaints, Informations, and Dismissals

Under Article 91, prescription is interrupted by the filing of a complaint or information, and it may run again if proceedings terminate without a conviction or acquittal, or if proceedings are unjustifiably stopped for reasons not attributable to the accused.

In practice, interruption issues often include:

Is filing at the prosecutor level enough, or must it be in court? Philippine practice and jurisprudential treatment have generally recognized interruption once the criminal process is formally set in motion through the proper complaint process, but litigating parties sometimes dispute the exact point of interruption in edge cases.

Dismissals and “resetting” the clock

If a case is filed but later dismissed in a way that ends proceedings without conviction or acquittal, prescription can begin to run again, depending on why and how the proceedings ended.

7) Private Crime Rules: Who Can File and Special Restrictions (Article 344)

Concubinage is a private crime, governed by RPC, Article 344, which imposes strict procedural conditions:

A) Only the offended spouse can initiate

Prosecution cannot be instituted except upon a complaint filed by the offended spouse.

This is not just a technicality—without the offended spouse’s proper complaint, the case is vulnerable to dismissal.

B) Both guilty parties must be included

The offended spouse must include both the husband and the concubine if both are alive. Selective prosecution (going after only one party) is generally not allowed for these offenses.

C) Consent or pardon bars prosecution

If the offended spouse consented to the offense or pardoned the offenders, prosecution is barred.

Key points commonly applied:

Pardon must typically occur before the institution of the criminal action to bar prosecution.
It must generally cover both offenders, not only one.

D) What about “affidavits of desistance”?

Even after a case is filed, affidavits of desistance are common in practice. They do not automatically erase a criminal case, but in private crimes the offended spouse’s withdrawal can heavily affect the ability to prove the case, and courts evaluate dismissals based on rules, evidence, and the circumstances.

8) Jurisdiction and Procedure: Where a Concubinage Case Goes

Because the penalty for concubinage is within the range typically handled by first-level courts (depending on the precise penalty and applicable rules), the case commonly proceeds through:

filing of a complaint by the offended spouse,
preliminary investigation where required under procedural rules,
and eventual filing of information in the proper court.

Venue is generally tied to where the offense (or any essential element) occurred, but concubinage fact patterns can create venue disputes when:

cohabitation occurs in a different city/province,
scandalous acts occur in one place and the relationship is maintained in another,
or evidence spans multiple locations.

9) Computing Prescription in Real-Life Scenarios (Illustrations)

Scenario 1: Cohabitation in a condominium for years

Husband and mistress cohabit from 2016 to 2022.
Wife discovered in 2017 but they continued living together until 2022.

If treated as a continuing crime, prescription generally starts from termination (2022). A complaint filed any time up to 2032 would generally still be within the 10-year period, subject to interruptions and procedural validity.

Scenario 2: “Scandalous circumstances” at a public event

A single highly public, scandalous incident occurred on June 1, 2018 and was discovered that day.

Prescription typically begins from June 1, 2018 (discovery), unless the fact pattern supports an ongoing continuing offense. Deadline would generally be June 1, 2028, subject to interruption rules.

Scenario 3: Mistress intermittently stays in conjugal home

Mistress stays for extended periods in the conjugal dwelling, leaves, returns, and the pattern repeats.

This can be argued as a continuing arrangement while the “keeping” is maintained. Prescription analysis may focus on when that arrangement actually ended.

10) Common Defenses and Case-Killers

A) Failure to meet Article 334 mode requirements

A frequent defense is: even if there was an affair, it did not amount to:

keeping a mistress in the conjugal dwelling, nor
sexual intercourse under scandalous circumstances, nor
cohabitation in another place.

B) Invalid or improper complaint (private crime requirements)

Because the offended spouse’s complaint is essential, defenses often attack:

whether the complainant is legally the offended spouse,
whether the complaint meets formal requirements,
whether both parties were properly included.

C) Pardon/condonation/consent

If evidence shows the offended spouse knowingly accepted the situation and pardoned it before filing, this can bar prosecution.

D) Prescription

Once the defense establishes the prescriptive period has run, the case can be dismissed—even if the underlying conduct is morally offensive.

11) “Recent Legal Updates” That Affect Concubinage Practice (Without Changing Article 334 Itself)

While the core text of RPC Article 334 has remained a stable reference point, developments in surrounding law and practice have changed how parties approach concubinage disputes:

A) Increased use of alternative/parallel remedies

Many complainants pursue remedies that may be more practical than concubinage, including:

Legal separation (Family Code) where applicable, but note: an action for legal separation must generally be filed within five (5) years from the occurrence of the cause (Family Code, Article 57), which is shorter than concubinage’s typical 10-year prescription framework.
Civil actions for damages based on provisions like Civil Code Article 26 (privacy, dignity, peace of mind) and Article 21 (acts contrary to morals, good customs, public policy), depending on the facts and pleadings.
VAWC (RA 9262) allegations in some situations where conduct causes psychological or emotional suffering; courts have emphasized that liability depends on statutory elements (including harm), not merely the fact of infidelity.

B) Electronic evidence and privacy constraints

Modern cases increasingly rely on chats, photos, GPS/location history, and social media. Two legal friction points frequently arise:

Admissibility and authentication Parties must still authenticate electronic evidence under applicable rules.
How evidence was obtained
- Anti-Wiretapping Act (RA 4200) risks arise where someone records private communications without consent.
- Data Privacy Act (RA 10173) issues can arise in mishandling personal data, though litigation context can be complex.
- Illegally obtained evidence can backfire—sometimes legally, sometimes practically.

C) Practical trend: concubinage is hard to prove cleanly

Because Article 334 requires specific modes (conjugal dwelling, scandalous circumstances, or cohabitation), and because private crime restrictions limit who may file and how, many disputes are handled through family-law and civil-law pathways rather than a pure concubinage prosecution.

12) Key Takeaways (Concubinage + Prescription in One View)

Concubinage (RPC Art. 334) is not “any affair”—it requires specific modes: conjugal dwelling, scandalous circumstances, or cohabitation elsewhere.
The prescriptive period is generally 10 years (RPC Art. 90), because the penalty is correctional (prisión correccional; destierro is also correctional in classification).
When prescription starts depends on facts:
- usually from discovery (RPC Art. 91),
- but for continuing arrangements (cohabitation/keeping), commonly from termination.
Prescription can be interrupted by the filing of the proper complaint/information, and may run again depending on how proceedings end.
Concubinage is a private crime (RPC Art. 344):
- only the offended spouse can initiate,
- both offenders must generally be included,
- consent/pardon can bar prosecution.
“Recent updates” affecting practice are less about rewriting Article 334 and more about privacy/electronic evidence, and the rise of parallel remedies (family-law, civil damages, and in some fact patterns, RA 9262).