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Sermonia vs. Court of Appeals

JOSE C. SERMONIA, petitioner, vs. HON. COURT OF APPEALS, Eleventh Division, HON. DEOGRACIAS FELIZARDO, Presiding Judge, Regional Trial Court of Pasig, Br. 151, and JOSEPH SINSAY, respondents.

G.R. No. 109454 | 1994-06-14

D E C I S I O N

BELLOSILLO, J.:

Bigamy is an illegal marriage committed by contracting a second or subsequent marriage before the first marriage has been legally dissolved, or before the absent spouse has been declared presumptively dead by means of a judgment rendered in the proper proceedings. 1 Bigamy carries with it the imposable penalty of prision mayor. Being punishable by an afflictive penalty, this crime prescribes in fifteen (15) years. 2 The fifteen-year prescriptive period commences to run from the day on which the crime is discovered by the offended party, the authorities, or their agents. . . ." 3

That petitioner contracted...