The Supreme Court has clarified that the 15-year prescriptive period for filing a bigamy case starts from the actual discovery of the bigamous marriage—not from the date it was registered with the Philippine Statistics Authority.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Samuel H. Gaerlan dated February 24, 2025, the high court’s Third Division upheld the conviction of Erwin Bonbon for bigamy after marrying Elizabeth Bonbon in 1999 while still legally married to Gemma Cunada, whom he wed in 1988.

Records showed that Erwin married another woman in 1994, still without ending his first marriage, and then married Elizabeth in 1999.

The offense came to light only in 2020, when Erwin’s sisters requested documents from the PSA to claim their late mother’s benefits and discovered his third marriage. A case was filed the following year.

Erwin argued the case had already prescribed, claiming his family knew of the marriage as early as 1999. But the Supreme Court rejected the argument, saying he failed to prove this, especially since the wedding took place in another province and no relatives attended.

Under Article 349 of the Revised Penal Code, bigamy occurs when a person enters into a second or subsequent marriage while a previous one is still legally in force. The Supreme Court emphasized that because bigamous marriages are usually concealed, starting the 15-year clock from the date of registration would make prosecution “almost impossible.”

Since Erwin’s sisters discovered the third marriage in 2020, and the case was filed in 2021, it was well within the allowable period.

Erwin was sentenced to up to eight years and one day in prison.

In a separate concurring opinion, Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa backed the conviction but highlighted the impact of Republic Act No. 11909 (Permanent Validity of the Certificates of Live Birth, Death, and Marriage Act), which created the digital Civil Registry Database in 2022.

Justice Caguioa recommended that Congress mandate the PSA to flag multiple marriage registrations, which could serve as automatic red flags for bigamy.

He proposed that the 15-year prescriptive period be adjusted as follows: From actual discovery, for bigamous marriages discovered before the digital registry existed.

From 2022, for those committed earlier but discovered only after the database was launched.

From date of registration, for all bigamous marriages committed after the database's establishment.