Clarification: Leila is a free woman, right?

Batas Mauricio

ON the ongoing controversy between President Duterte and Sen. Leila de Lima, let us emphasize certain points to put the word war between them in its proper perspective and, therefore, easier to understand.

First, Leila is literally a “free” woman, in that her marriage to her first husband had been annulled by virtue of a court decision. Annulment of marriages in the Philippines, as we all know, has the effect of invalidating the marriage right from the moment it was celebrated, as if there was no marriage at all.

Consequently, she can do anything she wants. She can enter into any relationship with any man (or even more than one of them) whom she fancies. She can lavish him with even the most expensive gifts, and she can enjoy him and let him enjoy her, if you know what I mean, even in the kinkiest way possible.

But then, be that as it may, Leila cannot have a man who is still very much married with another woman. While Leila cannot be charged with adultery for entering into a man-woman relationship with another man after the annulment of her marriage, it is possible for her to be included in a charge for concubinage.

Concubinage, after all, is the crime of a married man who indulges in sex with a woman other than his wife, under scandalous circumstances. When I was still studying law at the University of the Philippines College of Law in Diliman several years ago, I found it difficult to visualize “sex under scandalous circumstances”.

In my naivete brought about by, ahem, pristine and pure upbringing under rural restrictions, I always believed then that sex can never be scandalous, as it is done in secrecy and, hold your breath, total darkness. This was of course the era before the Internet where, at present, even the most intimate moments between a man and a woman can now be uploaded for everyone to see (know what I mean, Leila?).

Then, there is the issue of giving fantastic gifts to one’s lover, like a posh mansion on a sprawling lot. This matter gives rise to a very disturbing question: where did the giver, in this case, Leila, get the scandalously big amount of money for the construction of the mansion, and the purchase of the vast lot on which it was built?

Pictures of the mansion and the lot are now spreading like the proverbial wildfire on the Internet, on many social networking sites, and it is clear that oodles of money must have been used to build the property, which is now being derisively called “the justice’s love nest.” Surely, we cannot fault anyone if they ask, “where did the money come from?”

When the world was a little younger and my siblings and I were just starting to discover the joys of crushes and puppy loves, our father, the late Melanio P. Mauricio Sr., would always chide us, “Don’t be too showy about your relationships, especially if you have more than one special someone…” Being showy has its upside, our father would say, and one of them is being able to brag about yourself. But it also has its downside: you get caught, sooner or later!

E-mail: batasmauricio@ yahoo.com