Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 98, Mandaluyong City

Work suspension on September 26, 2025

Homosexuality is NOT the issue; it is the concealment thereof that constitutes fraud.

The (SC) has reiterated that hiding one’s homosexuality from a spouse can be considered fraud and may be used as a ground to annul a marriage.

In a Decision written by Associate Justice Antonio T. Kho, Jr., the SC’s Second Division annulled the marriage of a woman whose husband concealed his homosexuality before they got married.

The couple met on social media. On their first date, the woman noticed that the man seemed distant. The man also avoided sitting beside her. When asked about this, the man said he was just shy and lacked confidence.

The two kept a long-distance relationship as the man worked overseas. Notwithstanding this, they got married two years later.

But the man continued to avoid intimacy and often started arguments to avoid his wife. Just two months after the wedding, he returned overseas and stopped communicating with her.

Later, the woman found magazines with half-naked and naked male models among her husband’s things. When she confronted him, he admitted that he was homosexual. The woman then filed for annulment of their marriage.

The SC ruled that the woman’s consent to the marriage was obtained through fraud, and that the marriage must be annulled on the ground of fraudulent concealment of sexuality, following Article 45(3) in relation to Article 46(4) of the 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦.

Article 45 of the 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘊𝘰𝘥𝘦 states that a marriage can be annulled if one party’s consent was obtained through fraud, as long as the couple did not continue living together after discovering the fraud. Article 46 further specifies that hiding one’s homosexuality or lesbianism from a spouse is considered fraud.

The SC gave credence to the woman’s allegations, noting that the man’s admission and his unexplained silence when his sexuality was being questioned could not be ignored. It found that the husband intentionally hid his homosexuality to persuade the woman to stay and marry him.

Read the full text of the Press Release at https://tinyurl.com/ywadbxwp.

Read the full text of the Decision at https://tinyurl.com/yjn9a89f.

Copying of this content is subject to the SC PIO’s Credit Attribution Policy: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/credit-attribution-policy/.

In view of the proliferation of fraudulent orders, notices,
issuances, advisories, and other related legal documents falsely
attributed to the Supreme Court PH, other courts and offices within
the Judiciary, THE PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED that all official communications of the court are exclusively transmitted through its designated official channels.

The public may verify the authenticity of these communications directly with the Supreme Court PH through its Public
Information Office, and the respective websites of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Court of Tax Appeals, and the Sandiganbayan.

For trial courts, the same may be verified through the Trial Court Locator section of the Supreme Court website.

As for parties to cases before the courts, they are reminded to closely monitor the stages of their cases and to exercise caution against fraudulent legal documents by regularly verifying its authenticity from the court concerned.

The public is encouraged to immediately report any fraudulent legal document, providing detailed information about the incident, e.g., the fraudulent legal documents, the medium by which the fraudulent legal documents were received, etc.

The report shall be addressed to the National Bureau of Investigation's official email address: [email protected].

Regarding fraudulent legal documents circulating online, such incidents should be reported to the Office of Cybercrime, Department of Justice - Philippines, to facilitate their investigation and the removal of said documents from the concerned media platform.

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