Superseded in part. The first rule below — forcible abduction of a woman against her will and with lewd designs — is live law. What has moved is the age threshold in the clause that follows it: Republic Act No. 8353 (1997) reclassified rape as a crime against persons, and Republic Act No. 11648 (2022) raised the age of sexual consent to sixteen. Sexual offences against children are prosecuted today under those acts and the special child-protection statutes, not under the under-twelve wording below.
Text of the provision
Art. 342. Forcible abduction. -The abduction of any woman against her will and with lewd designs shall be punished by reclusion temporal. The same penalty shall be imposed in every case, if the female abducted be under twelve years of age.
Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, Act No. 3815, as amended. Reproduced in full from the official enactment and verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings.
What this article means
Taking away a woman against her will and with lewd designs is punished by reclusion temporal. The same penalty applies in every case where the female abducted is under twelve years of age.
Questions about this provision
Related provisions
- Article 339 — Lasciviousness With Consent.
- Article 349 — Bigamy: Second Marriage.
On this text. This article is reproduced as the Revised Penal Code enacted it, verified word-for-word against two independent sources. Republic Act No. 10951 (2017) revised the penalty amounts in many other articles of this Code; where an amount appears below it is the figure this article itself carries.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.