The accused Jacinto being then legally married to one Dennia in a marriage ceremony solemnized on March 10, 1986 at Quezon City by Judge Perfecto Laguio, Jr., and without said marriage having been legally dissolved or annulled, contracted a second and subsequent marriage with Milagros in the Municipality of Calauag, Quezon Province. The accused did not deny that he contracted a second marriage without a judicial declaration that his absent spouse from a prior marriage may be legally presumed dead. He further argued that the it was the prosecution's burden to prove that his absent wife was still alive when he contracted his second marriage. The Court was not convinced and thus found the accused guilty beyond reasonable doubt of the crime of bigamy. Article 349 of the Revised Penal Code has made the dissolution of marriage dependent not only upon the personal belief of parties, but upon certain objective facts easily capable of accurate judicial cognizance, namely, a judgment of the presumptive death of the absent spouse.