MANILA - Philippine men who kill their wives after they catch them cheating on them will no longer enjoy legal protection from serious punishment under new bill before Congress, a lawmaker said on Monday.
If passed, the bill will repeal a provision in the penal code that says a husband may be handed only minor penalties if he kills his wife and her lover after catching them in the act of sex, said Congressman Neri Colmenares.
"It is incomprehensible why the law which essentially allows the offended spouse to kill the offending spouse, remains in our criminal code," Colmenares, author of the revised bill, said in a statement.
His bill would also scrap an element of current law that hands light penalties to a parent who kills a daughter and her "seducer" if they are caught in the carnal act.
Colmenares said existing law shows the "discriminatory and feudal frame of mind" of its authors.
"Insult or passion must never be a license to kill," he said in his statement.
