Prescriptive Period of the Adultery Adultery is provided for in Art.

333 of the Revised Penal Code, as stated in the following: Art. 333. Who are guilty of adultery. Adultery is committed by any married woman who shall have sexual intercourse with a man not her husband and by the man who has carnal knowledge of her knowing her to be married, even if the marriage be subsequently declared void. Adultery shall be punished by prision correccional in its medium and maximum periods. If the person guilty of adultery committed this offense while being abandoned without justification by the offended spouse, the penalty next lower in degree than that provided in the next preceding paragraph shall be imposed.

According to Art. 25 of RPC, adultery is classed under correctional penalties, as can be gleaned as follows: Art. 25. Penalties which may be imposed. The penalties which may be imposed according to this Code, and their different classes, are those included in the following: Scale Principal Penalties Capital punishment: Death. Afflictive penalties: Reclusion perpetua, Reclusion temporal, Perpetual or temporary absolute disqualification, Perpetual or temporary special disqualification, Prision mayor. Correctional penalties: Prision correccional, Arresto mayor, Suspension, Destierro. Light penalties: Arresto menor, Public censure.

Penalties common to the three preceding classes: Fine, and Bond to keep the peace.

The provision for Adultery does not provide for the prescriptive period of the crime, hence, reference should be had the provisions to the rules regarding prescription of offenses: Art. 91. Computation of prescription of offenses. The period of prescription shall commence to run from the day on which the crime is discovered by the offended party, the authorities, or their agents, and shall be interrupted by the filing of the complaint or information, and shall commence to run again when such proceedings terminate without the accused being convicted or acquitted, or are unjustifiably stopped for any reason not imputable to him. The term of prescription shall not run when the offender is absent from the Philippine Archipelago. Art. 92. When and how penalties prescribe. The penalties imposed by final sentence prescribe as follows: 1. Death and reclusion perpetua, in twenty years; 2. Other afflictive penalties, in fifteen years; 3. Correctional penalties, in ten years; with the exception of the penalty of arresto mayor, which prescribes in five years; 4. Light penalties, in one year.

Therefore, the crime of adultery prescribes in ten years from the day the crime is discovered.