Comprehensive Philippines Civil Code 1949

Human relations: duties and civil actions

Article 19 requires that in exercising rights and performing duties, every person must act with justice, give everyone his due, and observe honesty and good faith.
Article 20 provides that any person who willfully or negligently causes damage to another contrary to law must indemnify the latter.
Article 21 requires compensation where a person willfully causes loss or injury contrary to morals, good customs, or public policy.
Article 22 mandates restitution where a person acquires or possesses something at the expense of another without just or legal ground.
Article 23 imposes liability for indemnity even when the damage event did not arise from defendant’s fault or negligence, if the defendant was benefited through the act or event.
Article 24 directs courts to be vigilant to protect a party disadvantaged by moral dependence, ignorance, indigence, mental weakness, tender age, or other handicap in contractual, property, or other relations.
Article 25 authorizes courts at the instance of any government or private charitable institution to stop thoughtless extravagance in expenses for pleasure or display during a period of acute public want or emergency.
Article 26 requires respect for neighbors’ dignity, personality, privacy, and peace of mind and establishes that specified acts (including prying into residence privacy, meddling with private life/family relations, intriguing to alienate friends, and vexing/humiliating for religious beliefs or personal condition) give a cause of action for damages, prevention and other relief.
Article 27 allows an action for damages and other relief against a public servant or employee who refuses or neglects, without just cause, to perform official duty, without prejudice to disciplinary administrative action.
Article 28 provides that unfair competition in agriculture, commerce, industry, or labor through force, intimidation, deceit, machination, or other unjust method gives rise to a right of action to the person who suffers damage.
Articles 29–30 establish civil recoveries with differing evidentiary standards where criminal proceedings end or where civil liability is pursued independently: acquittal for failure to prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt allows a civil damages action needing only preponderance of evidence, with possible bond to answer for damages if the complaint is malicious; separate civil action (when no criminal proceedings are instituted during the pendency of the civil case) also requires preponderance of evidence.
Article 31 permits a civil action based on an obligation not arising from the act or omission complained of as a felony to proceed independently of criminal proceedings regardless of their result.
Article 32 imposes damages liability on anyone who obstructs, defeats, violates, impedes, or impairs the enumerated rights and liberties (including religion, speech, press, liberty from arbitrary detention, suffrage, due process on property deprivation, just compensation, equal protection, security against unreasonable searches/seizures, liberty of abode, privacy of communication, association rights, peaceable assembly/petition, freedom from involuntary servitude, excessive bail, right to be heard with counsel and other trial rights, protection against compelled self-incrimination and forced confessions, freedom from excessive fines/cruel punishment, and access to courts); it also grants the aggrieved party a distinct civil action proved by preponderance of evidence, mandates that indemnity includes moral damages and allows exemplary damages, and limits direct demand against a judge except when the act/omission constitutes a violation of the Penal Code or other penal statute.
Article 33 allows separate civil actions for defamation, fraud, and physical injuries independent of criminal actions, requiring only preponderance of evidence.
Article 34 provides that when a police force member refuses/fails to render aid or protection in danger to life or property, the peace officer is primarily liable and the city or municipality is subsidiarily responsible; the civil action is independent of criminal proceedings and supported by preponderance of evidence.
Article 35 authorizes a complainant to file a civil action for damages against an alleged offender when the justice of the peace finds no reasonable grounds for a crime or the prosecuting attorney refuses or fails to institute criminal proceedings, subject to a possible bond upon defendant’s motion; if an information is presented, the civil action is suspended until termination of criminal proceedings.
Article 36 makes applicable the same distinct civil-action and evidentiary framework to rights obstructions by public officers or private individuals and requires moral damages and potential exemplary damages.

Family law opening: status, capacities, and marriage

Article 37 provides that juridical capacity is inherent in every natural person and is lost only through death; capacity to act is acquired and may be lost.
Article 38 states that minority, insanity/imbecility, deaf-muteness, prodigality, and civil interdiction are restrictions on capacity to act and do not exempt the person from obligations when they arise from acts or property relations (e.g., easements).
Article 39 lists circumstances that modify or limit capacity to act (including age, insanity, imbecility, deaf-mute status, penalty, prodigality, family relations, alienage, absence, insolvency, trusteeship) and provides that capacity to act is not limited by religious belief or political opinion; it also provides that a married woman twenty-one years of age or over is qualified for all acts of civil life except cases specified by law.
Article 40 provides that birth determines personality; the conceived child is considered born for favorable purposes provided it is born later with the conditions in Article 41.
Article 41 provides that for civil purposes the foetus is considered born if it is alive at complete delivery from the womb; if intra-uterine life is less than seven months, the foetus is not deemed born if it dies within twenty-four hours after complete delivery.
Article 42 provides that civil personality is extinguished by death and that death’s effects on rights and obligations are determined by law, contract, and will.
Article 43 establishes rules where it is uncertain who died first among persons called to succeed each other: the party alleging prior death must prove it; otherwise, a presumption of simultaneous death applies and there is no transmission of rights from one to the other.
Article 44 defines juridical persons and lists the State and political subdivisions, corporations/institutions/entities for public interest created by law (personality begins upon constitution according to law), and private corporations/partnerships/associations granted juridical personality separate and distinct from members/shareholders.
Articles 45–47 provide governance: public-interest juridical persons are governed by laws creating/recognizing them; private corporations are regulated by laws of general application; partnerships and associations are governed by partnership provisions; juridical persons may acquire property and incur obligations and bring actions in conformity with their organization; on dissolution of public-interest entities, their assets are applied as required by law or charter, or if none specified, to similar purposes benefitting the region/province/city/municipality that derived principal benefits.
Article 48 enumerates Philippine citizens; Article 49 provides that naturalization and loss/reacquisition of citizenship are governed by special laws.
Article 50 establishes that domicile of natural persons for civil rights/obligations is the place of habitual residence.
Article 51 provides that when the law does not fix the domicile of juridical persons, domicile is where legal representation is established or where principal functions are exercised.
Article 52 declares marriage is not a mere contract but an inviolable social institution, with nature, consequences and incidents governed by law, subject only to marriage settlements to a limited extent.
Article 53 provides four requisites for marriage: legal capacity of parties, their consent freely given, authority of the person performing the marriage, and a marriage license except in an exceptional marriage under Section 1, Article 3613 (as referenced).
Article 54 provides that males sixteen and upwards and females fourteen and upwards may contract marriage, unless under impediments in Articles 80–84.
Article 55 requires no particular form for ceremony but requires a declaration in the presence of the solemnizing person and two witnesses of legal age, that the parties take each other as husband and wife, set forth in an instrument in triplicate signed/marked by parties and witnesses and attested by the solemnizing officer; special rule applies for marriages on the point of death where a dying party cannot sign—sufficient for one witness to sign and attest the fact.
Article 56 enumerates persons who may solemnize marriages (including Supreme Court Justices, Court of Appeals Justices, judges, mayors, municipal judges and justices of the peace, duly registered priests/rabbis/ministers, and specified captains/commanders/consuls in special cases under referenced provisions).
Article 57 requires public solemnization in open court office of the judge or in mayor’s office, or in the church/chapel/temple as the case may be, and not elsewhere—except in cases of death-point or remote place exceptions under referenced provisions, and cases where a parent/guardian requests in writing for solemnization at a house/place designated in a sworn statement (when the female is over eighteen).
Article 58 provides that, except for exceptional character marriages authorized in the Code, no marriage shall be solemnized without a marriage license first issued by the local civil registrar of the municipality where either contracting party habitually resides.
Article 59 directs the local civil registrar to issue the license if each party separately swears to an application in writing stating necessary qualifications; it also states that parents/guardians are not required to exhibit residence certificates; the application shall contain specified personal data, including names, place of birth, age/date of birth, civil status and dissolution facts for divorced parties, present residence, relationship degree, parents’ names/residences, and guardian/person having charge details for persons under twenty (male) or eighteen (female) without parents.
Article 60 requires exhibition of original baptismal or birth certificates or attested copies; exempts such certificates/copies from documentary stamp tax and provides that the issuing official’s signature/title proves authenticity; provides replacements when certificates are lost/destroyed or not yet received after at least fifteen days from request; allows residence certificate for current or previous years or a sworn instrument before the civil registrar with sworn statements of two lawful-age witnesses of either sex including full names, profession, residence, and birth details; nearest of kin preferred as witnesses; includes exceptions where parents personally appear to swear lawful age or where registrar is convinced by personal inspection of required age.
Article 61 requires widowed/divorced applicants to furnish death certificate of deceased spouse or decree of divorce; if death certificate cannot be found, an affidavit setting out that fact, actual status, and death details; requires written consent of father/mother/guardian/person having legal charge for parties below twenty (male) or eighteen (female), made under oath before the local civil registrar or as an affidavit with two witnesses and attestation.
Article 62 provides that males above twenty but under twenty-five and females above eighteen but under twenty-three must ask parents/guardian for advice; if advice is not obtained or is unfavorable, marriage cannot take place until after three months following completion of publication of application; a sworn statement with written advice (if any) must accompany the application and refusal must be stated.
Article 63 requires posting by the local civil registrar a notice for ten consecutive days at the main door, showing applicants’ full names and domiciles and other application data, requesting persons with knowledge of impediments to advise the registrar; license is issued after completion of publication unless impediment information is received.
Article 64 requires the registrar to investigate upon alleged impediment, examining persons under oath; if convinced of an impediment, the registrar must withhold the license unless ordered otherwise by a competent court.
Article 65 requires previous payment of fees required by law or regulations for each license, and prohibits collecting any other sum as fee or tax for issuance; provides that marriage licenses are issued free of charge to indigent parties when both male and female do not each own assessed real property exceeding five hundred pesos, certified without cost by the provincial treasurer or, failing that, via statement duly sworn by contracting parties; provides that a license is valid anywhere in the Philippines but good for no more than one hundred and twenty days from issuance and is deemed cancelled at expiration if not used.
Article 66 requires foreign-citizen/subject parties to obtain a certificate of legal capacity from their diplomatic/consular officials before securing a marriage license.
Article 67 provides that the marriage certificate must include full names/domiciles, age of each, statement that the proper license was issued and parents’ consent exists when required, and statement that guardian/parent was informed within specified age bands.
Article 68 imposes duties on the solemnizing person to provide one copy to either contracting party, and to send another copy to the local civil registrar within fifteen days after the marriage; the civil registrar must issue a receipt; the solemnizing official/minister retains the third copy, the license, and relevant affidavits in required files.
Article 69 obliges the local civil registrar to prepare documents required by the Title and administer oaths to interested parties without charge; provides that documents/affidavits filed for marriage license applications are exempt from documentary stamp tax.
Article 70 requires ordering entries in a register book strictly by receipt order and recording names, issue date, and necessary data.
Article 71 provides that marriages performed outside the Philippines valid there under local laws are valid in the Philippines except bigamous, polygamous, or incestuous marriages as determined by Philippine law.
Article 72 allows marriage without a license when either party is on the point of death or the female’s habitual residence is more than fifteen kilometers from the municipal building with no railroad/provincial/local highways communication; the solemnizing official must state in an affidavit made before the local civil registrar or authorized person that the marriage was performed articulo mortis or in the distant place, including the barrio name; the affidavit must also state necessary steps were taken to ascertain ages and relationship and that there was no legal impediment at solemnization time.
Article 73 requires sending the original affidavit and a copy of the marriage contract to the local civil registrar of the municipality where the marriage was performed within thirty days after performance, with the local civil registrar requiring payment into the municipal treasury of legal fees required under Article 65 before filing.
Article 74 permits marriages articulo mortis by ship captains/airplane chiefs during voyages or commanding officers of military units during war in absence of a chaplain, with compliance with the duties in the preceding articles.
Article 75 authorizes consuls and vice-consuls to solemnize marriages between Filipino citizens abroad and to perform the duties assigned to the local civil registrar and judicial/Municipal officials.
Article 76 provides that no marriage license is necessary when a man and a woman who have attained the age of majority, are unmarried, and have lived together as husband and wife for at least five years desire to marry each other; they must state these facts in an affidavit; the solemnizing official must state in an affidavit that he took steps to ascertain ages and qualifications and found no legal impediment.
Article 77 provides that if two persons married according to law desire to ratify their union according to church/sect/religion regulations/rites, compliance with Chapter 1 is no longer required and the ratification is treated as a purely religious ceremony.
Article 78 provides special rules for Muslims or pagans in non-Christian provinces: marriages may be performed according to customs/rites and without license or formal requisites, and solemnizers are not required to comply with Article 92; it also provides that thirty years after the Code’s approval, marriages between Muslims or other non-Christians must be solemnized under the Code, with presidential power (by proclamation upon recommendation of the Commissioner of National Integration) to make any Code provisions applicable earlier for Muslims and non-Christians in non-Christian provinces.
Article 79 governs mixed marriages: Christian male with Mohammedan/pagan female follow general provisions of the Title; Mohammedan/pagan male with Christian female may follow the exceptional-marriage regime if desired, subject to the second paragraph of the referenced article.

Void and voidable marriages rules

Article 80 declares void from the beginning marriages: those where parties are below sixteen (male) and fourteen (female) even with parental consent; those solemnized by unauthorized persons; those solemnized without a marriage license save exceptional character marriages; bigamous/polygamous marriages not under Article 83, No. 2; incestuous marriages under Article 81; marriages where one/both parties are found guilty of killing the spouse of either; and marriages between specified prohibited relatives under Article 82.
Article 81 declares incestuous marriages void from performance: between ascendants and descendants of any degree; between brothers and sisters (full or half blood); and between collateral relatives by blood within the fourth civil degree.
Article 82 declares void from the beginning specified step and adoptive relationships and their survival effects, including stepfather-stepdaughter, stepmother-stepson, adopting parent-adopted and related surviving spouse relationships, and legitimate children of the adopter and the adopted.
Article 83 declares that a subsequent marriage contracted during the lifetime of the first spouse is illegal and void unless the first marriage was annulled/dissolved, or the first spouse has been absent for seven consecutive years without news of being alive, or is generally considered dead and believed dead by the spouse at contracting, or is presumed dead under Articles 390 and 391; it also provides that the second marriage is valid until declared null and void by a competent court in the enumerated cases.
Article 84 provides a widow waiting period: no marriage license shall be issued to a widow until after three hundred days following the husband’s death unless she has given birth in the meantime.
Article 85 allows annulment for specified causes existing at the time of marriage, including lack of required age with no parent/guardian consent (and later cohabitation effects), contracting in a subsequent marriage based on belief the other spouse is dead when actually living, unsound mind (with later free cohabitation effects), fraud in obtaining consent (with cohabitation after full knowledge effects), force/intimidation (with cohabitation after cessation effects), and continuing incurable physical incapacity to enter the married state.
Article 86 defines fraud for purposes of Article 85(4) as misrepresentation of identity; non-disclosure of prior conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude with imprisonment of two years or more; and concealment by wife of pregnancy by a man other than her husband; it provides that other misrepresentations about character, rank, fortune, or chastity do not constitute fraud for annulment grounds.
Article 87 sets the period and who may file for annulment actions: for age/consent cases under Article 85(1), the party without parental/guardian consent within four years after attaining required ages, or the parent/guardian/person in legal charge at any time before the party attains such ages; for absence-belief-death cases, by the absent spouse during lifetime or either spouse of the subsequent marriage during lifetime of the other; for insanity, by the sane spouse without knowledge or relatives/guardian of unsound mind party any time before death; for fraud, within four years after discovery; for force/intimidation, within four years from when it ceased; for physical incapacity, within eight years after marriage.
Article 88 provides that no judgment annulling a marriage shall be promulgated upon a stipulation of facts or by confession of judgment; it also requires observance of Article 101, paragraph 2 when defendant does not appear.
Article 89 establishes children’s status: children conceived or born of void marriages have status, rights, and obligations of acknowledged natural children; children conceived of voidable marriages before annulment decree are considered legitimate, and children conceived thereafter are treated as acknowledged natural children by legal fiction.
Article 90 requires the court, upon annulment, to award custody of children and make provision for education and support; attorney’s fees and expenses incurred in litigation are charged to conjugal partnership property unless the action fails.
Article 91 authorizes damages upon judicial annulment or declaration of void from the beginning in specified situations involving fraud/force/intimidation, physical incapacity with unaware other party, unauthorized solemnizer known to one party who concealed it, concealed impediment in bigamous/polygamous situations, concealed relationship facts in incest/prohibited step or relative cases, and insanity where the other party was aware.

Authority to solemnize: religious ministers

Article 92 requires every priest/minister/rabbi authorized by denomination/church/sect/religion to solemnize marriage to submit a sworn statement with full name, domicile, and authorization by denomination/church/sect/religion, attaching a certified copy of appointment.
Article 92 provides that the director of the proper government office, satisfied that the denomination/church/sect/religion operates in the Philippines, must record the minister’s name in a suitable register and issue authorization to solemnize marriage.
Article 92 obliges the authorized priest/minister/rabbi to exhibit authorization when demanded by contracting parties or their parents/grandparents/guardians/persons in charge.
Article 92 prohibits any priest/minister without required authorization from solemnizing marriage.
Article 93 directs that public officials observe freedom of religion in issuance of authorization and shall not inquire into truth or validity of religious doctrine held by the applicant or the church.
Article 94 requires the public official to cancel an authorization to solemnize marriage upon initiative or at request of interested party upon showing the church/sect/religion is no longer in operation; it also provides that cancellation is ordered upon request of the bishop/head or lawful authorities of the denomination/church/sect/religion for the priest/pastor/minister.
Article 95 authorizes the public official in charge of registration of priests and ministers, with approval of the proper Department head, to prepare forms and promulgate regulations enforcing Title provisions, and to fix and collect fees by regulations for authorization of priests and ministers to solemnize marriages.
Article 96 keeps in force existing laws punishing acts or omissions concerning marriage license, solemnization of marriage, authority to solemnize, and other acts relative to celebration of marriage.

Legal separation: grounds, conditions, effects

Article 97 allows a petition for legal separation for adultery by the wife and concubinage by the husband as defined in the Penal Code, or an attempt by one spouse against the life of the other.
Article 98 requires the court, before granting legal separation, to take steps toward reconciliation and must be fully satisfied that reconciliation is highly improbable.
Article 99 bars entitlement to legal separation for a person who has not resided in the Philippines for one year prior to filing, unless the cause took place within the territory of the Republic.
Article 100 restricts the claim to the innocent spouse, provided there has been no condonation or consent; it bars claim where both spouses are offenders and provides that collusion causes dismissal of the petition.
Article 101 prohibits promulgating a legal separation decree upon stipulation of facts or confession of judgment; if the defendant does not appear, the court orders the prosecuting attorney to inquire into collusion and intervene for the State to ensure evidence is not fabricated if no collusion exists.
Article 102 sets time limits: legal separation must be filed within one year from when the plaintiff became cognizant of the cause and within five years from when the cause occurred.
Article 103 provides a waiting period: legal separation actions cannot be tried before six months have elapsed since filing of the petition.
Article 104 provides interim status: after filing, spouses may live separately and manage their respective property; the husband continues to manage the conjugal partnership unless the court appoints another manager for reasons it deems proper, subject to guardian-like rights and duties and limitations on disposing of income/capital except by court order.
Article 105 requires the court during pendency to provide for care of minor children and may set aside conjugal partnership property or its income for their support; it directs court abstention if parents by mutual agreement have made provision and the court finds the children well cared for.
Article 106 provides effects of a decree: spouses may live separately but marriage bonds are not severed; conjugal partnership/absolute conjugal community is dissolved