Screencap from ashleymadison.com
MANILA, Philippines–Tempted to sign up? You’ll be committing a crime.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is looking to ban a so-called cheaters’ dating site recently launched in the Philippines, citing provisions in the Revised Penal Code that outlaw extramarital affairs.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Saturday said a ban could soon be enforced against the adultery website, Ashley Madison
(www.ashleymadison.com), a cyberdestination for cheaters that boasts of being “the most famous name in infidelity and married dating.”
She said the DOJ’s Office of Cybercrime was already monitoring the website.
“Our general criminal law will apply, the Revised Penal Code, which proscribes the illicit sexual conduct of a married person with another person who is not the spouse,” De Lima said in a text message.
“The website is a platform that allows illegal acts to be eventually committed; hence, a ban may be enforced,” she said.
Discreet encounters
Ashley Madison, which mainly caters to married people looking to have an affair, touts itself as “the most successful website for finding an affair and cheating partners.” The international site is also open to the unattached.
Sign-up is free but fees are charged when members signify a wish to interact with those they fancy on the site.
“Thousands of cheating wives and cheating husbands sign up every day looking for an affair. We are the most famous website for discreet encounters between married individuals. Married dating has never been easier,” the website says on its main page.
The online service, which carries the tagline, “Life is short. Have an affair,” even offers an “affair guarantee package,” which ensures that users “will find the perfect affair partner.”
Banned in Korea
Considering how conservative Philippine society can be, the newly launched website has already attracted some 3,000 Filipinos to sign up, as Ashley Madison spokesman Christoph Kraemer had claimed in media interviews during his visit to Manila earlier this week to introduce the site to the Philippine market.
The site was banned in South Korea in April and Singapore in November 2013 for blatant immorality.
Affront to integrity
Women’s rights activist Liza Maza slammed the website, calling it “an affront to human integrity and social harmony,” and an “outright commercialization of cheating.”
Maza said she was supporting the government’s plan to ban the site, noting how women suffer the most in cases of adultery.
“In the context of relationships in a macho society like ours, it is the women who suffer and are disadvantaged when husbands cheat and have extramarital affairs,” said Maza, Gabriela Women’s Alliance chair emerita.
“This problem will worsen with the promotion of this website. Thus, it should likewise be banned in our country,” she said.
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