The Supreme Court (SC) has acquitted a woman of bigamy, ruling that a person accused of the crime can argue that a previous marriage was void from the beginning as a defense without first obtaining a separate court order declaring it invalid.

The SC’s Third Division, in a decision written by Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, cleared Ma. Fe Imelda Lapira of the criminal charge.

Reports said that the SC found that her first marriage was void from the start because it lacked a marriage license, which is required under the country’s Family Code.

The ruling overturned previous decisions by a Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals.

Both lower courts had convicted Lapira, stating she could not claim her first marriage was invalid without first securing a judicial declaration of nullity.

The case began after Lapira married Jimmy Fariscal in April 2001. Fariscal later discovered records during a child custody dispute showing that Lapira had previously married a Japanese national, Takahiko Sato, in August 2000.

Fariscal then filed a bigamy complaint against her.

Lapira argued that her marriage to Sato was intended only to help her enter Japan and that no actual wedding ceremony took place.

She also presented a certification from the local civil registrar in Imus, Cavite, confirming that no marriage license had ever been issued for her marriage to Sato.

The SC ruled that the lack of a marriage license meant the first marriage was legally inexistent from the beginning. Consequently, a key requirement for the crime of bigamy — a valid prior marriage — was missing.

Under the Revised Penal Code, bigamy requires proof that an accused person was legally married before entering into a second marriage. Because Lapira proved the first marriage was void, the prosecution failed to meet that requirement, the court said.