Criminal intent must be established in psychological violence case

Dear PAO,

I always engage in a quarrel with my husband, mostly on matters relating to the management of the family budget. However, in one of our serious quarrels, he lost his temper, shouted at me, and told me to leave our house and to get out of his life. He told me that he wanted to be alone without a family. Because of this incident, I was forced to leave our dwelling broken-hearted and decided to live with my mother. The incident caused me emotional anguish. May he be held automatically liable for psychological abuse under the Anti-VAWC law?

Pamela

Dear Pamela,

The following elements are required to be established in order that a conviction for violation of Section 5(i) of Republic Act No. 9262 (RA No. 9262) be sustained: (1)That the offended party is a woman and/or her child or children; (2) The woman is either the wife, former wife of the offender, or is a woman with whom the offender has or had sexual or dating relationship, or is a woman with whom such offender has a common child; (3) The offender causes on the woman and/or child mental or emotional anguish; and (4) The anguish is caused through acts of public ridicule or humiliation, repeated verbal or emotional abuse, denial of financial support or custody of minor children or access to the children, or similar such acts or omissions.

Relative to your question, we refer you to a decision of the Supreme Court in the case of XXX261920 v. People, G.R. No. 261920, March 27, 2023, penned by Honorable Associate Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier, where the Supreme Court, reiterating its earlier decision in Acharon v. People, explained:

«It is not enough, therefore, for the woman to experience mental or emotional anguish, or for her partner to deny financial support that is legally due her. In order for criminal liability to arise under Section 5(i) of RA 9262, insofar as it deals with 'denial of financial support,' there must, therefore, be evidence on record that the accused willfully or consciously withheld financial support legally due the woman for the purpose of inflicting mental or emotional anguish upon her. In other words, the actus reus of the offense under Section 5(i) is the willful denial of financial