QuestionsQuestions (Act No. 3613)
The essential requisites are (1) the legal capacity of the contracting parties and (2) their consent.
A male must be at least 16 years old, while a female must be at least 14 years old, subject to the exceptions mentioned in Sections 28 and 29 of the Act.
No particular form is required for the ceremony. However, the parties must declare, in the presence of the person solemnizing the marriage and two witnesses of legal age, that they take each other as husband and wife.
The declaration must be set forth in an instrument in triplicate, signed by or marked by both contracting parties and the two witnesses, and attested by the person solemnizing the marriage.
If the dying party is physically unable to sign by signature or mark, it is sufficient for one of the witnesses to sign in his name, and this must be attested by the minister solemnizing the marriage.
They include: (a) the Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the Supreme Court; (b) judges and auxiliary judges of Courts of First Instance; (c) municipal judges of Manila and justices of the peace; and (d) priests/ministers registered with the Philippine National Library, and chaplains of the Army or Navy of the United States as provided in Chapter IV.
Generally, it must be solemnized publicly in the office of the justice/court (if performed by an official) or in a church/chapel/temple (if performed by a priest or minister), and not elsewhere—except for (1) marriages “in articulo mortis,” (2) remote places under Section 20, (3) certain cases when a parent/guardian (or the female if over 18) requests in writing that it be held at the designated house/place.
It must be a building constructed of strong, mixed, or light materials, open to the faithful at suitable hours, set aside for religious services and the solemnization of marriages and other sacred ceremonies.
The contracting parties must exhibit the original baptismal or birth certificates, or duly attested copies from the custody of the originals.
The party may furnish in lieu thereof an instrument drawn up and sworn before the clerk of the Municipal Court of Manila or the municipal secretary concerned or any public official authorized to solemnize marriage, containing sworn declarations of two lawful-age witnesses about full name, profession, residence, parents (if known), and place/date of birth.
Instead of baptismal/birth certificates, they must furnish the death certificate of the deceased spouse or the decree of the divorce court (or an affidavit if the death certificate cannot be found), showing their actual civil status and relevant details.
The municipal secretary/clerk must post notice for ten consecutive days. Normally, the license is issued after the period. But it may issue immediately if the applicants and an authorized priest/minister state in writing and under oath that their church rules require banns/publications (and the church is properly certified), or if the parent/guardian accompanies the applicants when applying in certain cases.
Even after compliance with Sections 7–11 and 13, issuance is prohibited if the issuing official is convinced, based on authentic documentary evidence, that (a) the applicants are related in the degrees specified in Section 28, or (b) they have not reached the legal age required by Section 2.
If either party is on the point of death, or if the female’s habitual residence is more than fifteen kilometers from the municipal building and there is no communication by railroad or provincial/local highway between them, the marriage may be solemnized without a license.
Section 30 states the causes must exist at the time of marriage. Examples include: (a) under-age at the time of marriage; (b) previous subsisting marriage; (c) unsound mind; (d) fraud in obtaining consent; (e) force in obtaining consent; and (f) physical incapacity that continues and appears incurable.
Incestuous marriages are void from their performance, whether the relationship is legitimate or illegitimate.