Case Digest (G.R. No. 261666)
Facts:
Rommel Genio y Santos v. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 261666, January 24, 2024, Supreme Court Third Division, Inting, J., writing for the Court.Petitioner Rommel Genio y Santos was charged by Information dated June 21, 2016 with Bigamy under Article 349 of the Revised Penal Code for allegedly contracting a second marriage with Maricar Santos Galapon on September 7, 2013 while his first marriage to Magdalena Esler Genio (complainant) from May 20, 2006 subsisted. Rommel pleaded not guilty. Pre-trial stipulations included the existence and authenticity of the Marriage Certificate between Rommel and Maricar; trial on the merits followed.
At trial the prosecution presented Magdalena as its sole live witness and offered documentary evidence: the complainant’s affidavit, marriage certificate of petitioner and Magdalena, birth certificates of their children, the birth certificate of Rommel and Maricar’s child, and a certified true copy of the Marriage Certificate between Rommel and Maricar issued by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Magdalena testified she lived separately from Rommel since 2013, saw Facebook photos suggesting a wedding between Rommel and Maricar, and observed Rommel and Maricar together in Guimba; she admitted she was not present at their alleged marriage ceremony.
Rommel did not deny the marriages or his signatures on the marriage certificates. His defense was that the second marriage was void ab initio for lack of essential/formal requisites (absence of the duly authorized solemnizing officer—the Municipal Mayor of Guimba—and lack of a proper marriage ceremony). Defense witnesses (Maricar, her sister Myra, and Gloria) testified the ceremony was “simple” at Maricar’s residence, that an Engineer Rolando Occasion (a civil registrar) rather than the Mayor officiated, that the Mayor did not appear, and that there was no exchange of vows or rings before the Mayor.
The RTC, Branch 33, Guimba, Nueva Ecija, convicted Rommel of Bigamy in a Judgment dated April 26, 2019 and sentenced him to prision correccional/prision mayor; its denial of reconsideration was memorialized in an Order dated September 11, 2019. Rommel appealed to the Court of Appeals (CA), which in a Decision dated July 16, 2021 affirmed the RTC: the CA gave decisive weight to the PSA Marriage Certificate as a public document prima facie proving the solemnities, and invoked the doctrine in Santiago v. People that a party who signs and causes misrepresentation cannot later deny it. The CA denied reconsideration in a Resolution dated June 7, 2022.
Rommel filed a Petition for Review on Certiorari under Rule 45 before the Court, challenging only the fourth element of Bigamy (that the second marriage had all essential requi...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the prosecution prove beyond reasonable doubt that the second marriage between Rommel and Maricar had all the essential and formal requisites for validity (the fourth element of Bigamy)?
- If the fourth element of Bigamy was not proven, may Rommel nevertheless be convicted of an included offense under the Information—namely, knowingly contracting a marriage against the provisions of law under Arti...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
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Ratio:
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Doctrine:
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