Arroyos file bill against necrophilia

MANILA, Philippines - The Arroyos in the House of Representatives have filed a bill seeking to criminalize necrophilia or sexual intercourse with a corpse.

Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her son, Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo, filed House Bill 1375, which seeks to penalize necrophilia to the fullest extent of the law by including it in the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines.

Under existing provisions of the Revised Penal Code, only the defamation to blacken the memory of one who is dead is criminalized.

“A cursory review of our penal statutes reveals that sexual violation of or sexual intercourse with a female corpse is presently beyond the pale of our criminal justice system. At most, desecration of the dead in this regard merely gives rise to liability for damages,” the authors said in their explanatory note.

“The bill seeks to include such an integral missing piece in our present law by penalizing necrophiles or those who morbidly derive sexual gratification by copulating with a corpse,” they said.

The Arroyos said the inclusion of a new article imposing stiffer penalties on those who commit such “a grisly and heinous act shall put a stop to such vicious bestiality, notoriously offensive and revolting to the feelings of the living.”

Persons found guilty of necrophilia will be slapped the penalty of prision mayor to reclusion temporal and a fine of P100,000 to P500,000.

Under the bill, if necrophilia is committed by two or more persons, or by any person in whose care or custody the corpse is found, the penalty shall be reclusion temporal.