Premature Marriage Now Decriminalized by Virtue of RA 10655

By virtue of Republic Act 10655, which was signed into law on March 13, 2015, Article 351 of the Revised Penal Code has been repealed and in effect decriminalized premature marriage. Article 351 provides:

Art. 351. Premature marriages. — Any widow who shall marry within three hundred and one day from the date of the death of her husband, or before having delivered if she shall have been pregnant at the time of his death, shall be punished by arresto mayor and a fine not exceeding 500 pesos.

The same penalties shall be imposed upon any woman whose marriage shall have been annulled or dissolved, if she shall marry before her delivery or before the expiration of the period of three hundred and one day after the legal separation.

The repeal is without prejudice to the provisions of the Family Code on paternity and filiation.


The rationale for the repeal is that it is discriminatory among women as it curtails their right to marry under the above-stated circumstances. The salient purpose of the prohibition under Article 351 is to impose among women a mourning period which prohibition is not imposed among men. 

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