The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that fraudulent concealment of homosexuality from a spouse before and at the time of marriage is a valid ground to annul marriage.
With the ruling, the SC reversed both the decisions of the trial court and the Court of Appeals (CA) as it granted the nullification of marriage sought by a wife who found that her husband is a homosexual.
The decision in the case docketed as GR No. 268109 and posted in the SC website – sc.judiciary.gov.ph – on Tuesday, July 15, was written by Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho Jr.
In 2010, the wife met through social media her husband who was then working in Saudi Arabia. In 2011, they became sweethearts.
They met personally in 2012 when the husband came back to the Philippines. They were married in 2013.
After their wedding, they lived together but the husband avoided intimacy and often started arguments to avoid being close to his wife.
Two months after their marriage, the husband returned to his overseas work and stopped communicating with his wife.
Later, the wife found magazines of half-naked and naked male models among her husband’s things. When the wife confronted him, the husband admitted he is a homosexual.
The wife left their conjugal home and returned to her parents.
She then filed a case in 2017 for nullity of marriage, stating she would not have consented to the union had she known the truth.
The husband did not appear during the trial court’s proceedings.
The lower courts dismissed the marriage nullification case for lack of evidence, prompting the wife to elevate it to the SC.
The SC found her case credible and ruled that her consent was obtained through fraud.
Thus, the SC ruled that the marriage “must be annulled on the ground of fraudulent concealment of homosexuality pursuant to Article 45(3) in relation to Article 46(4) of the Family Code.” (Rey Panaligan)
