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(f) To take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws,
regulations, customs and practices which constitute discrimination against women;
(g) To repeal all national penal provisions which constitute discrimination against women.108
In compliance with the foregoing international commitments, the Philippines enshrined the principle
of gender equality in the 1987 Constitution specifically in Sections 11 and 14 of Article II thereof,
thus:
Sec. 11. The State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human
rights.
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Sec. 14. The State recognizes the role of women in nation-building, and shall ensure the
fundamental equality before the law of women and men. The Philippines also acceded to adopt and
implement the generally accepted principles of international law such as the CEDA W and its allied
issuances, viz:
Article II, Section 2. The Philippines renounces war as an instrument of national policy, and adopts
the generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land and adheres to
the policy of peace, equality, justice, freedom, cooperation, and amity with all nations. (Emphasis
ours)
The Legislature then pursued the enactment of laws to propagate gender equality. In 1997, R.A. No.
8353 eradicated the stereotype concept of rape in Article 335 of the RPC.109 The law reclassified rape
as a crime against person and removed it from the ambit of crimes against chastity. More particular
to the present case, and perhaps the law's most progressive proviso is the 2nd paragraph of Section
2 thereof recognizing the reality of marital rape and criminalizing its perpetration, viz:
Article 266-C. Effect of Pardon. - The subsequent valid marriage between the offended party shall
extinguish the criminal action or the penalty imposed.
In case it is the legal husband who is the offender, the subsequent forgiveness by the wife as the
offended party shall extinguish the criminal action or the penalty: Provided, That the crime shall not
be extinguished or the penalty shall not be abated if the marriage is void ab initio.
Read together with Section 1 of the law, which unqualifiedly uses the term "man" in defining rape, it
is unmistakable that R.A. No. 8353 penalizes the crime without regard to the rapist's legal
relationship with his victim, thus:
Article 266-A. Rape: When And How Committed. - Rape is committed:
1) By a man who shall have carnal knowledge of a woman under any of the following circumstances:
a) Through force, threat, or intimidation;
b) When the offended party is deprived of reason or otherwise unconscious;