Concealment of homosexuality a ground for marriage nullity – SC

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.

- By REY G. PANALIGAN

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 July 15, was written by Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho Jr.

The SC decision was grounded on the provisions of Articles 45, 46, and 47 of the Family Code on consent obtained by fraud; concealment of drug addiction, habitual alcoholism or homosexuality or lesbianism existing at the time of marriage; and filing of case for annulment of marriage within five years from discovery of the fraud.

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.

On their first date, the wife noticed that her husband was very distant and she wondered why they neither kissed nor held hands. The husband did not even sit beside her when they commuted not even when they had lunch.