Family Code of the Philippines: Marriage and Family Law

Policy and purpose: marriage as institution

Article 1 provides that marriage is a permanent union entered into in accordance with law for the establishment of conjugal and family life.
Article 1 states that marriage is an inviolable social institution whose nature, consequences, and incidents are governed by law, not subject to stipulation (except for marriage settlements within limits provided by the Code).
Executive Order No. 209 is issued to implement constitutional policies strengthening marriage and family as basic social institutions and ensuring equality between men and women.

Key definitions and core concepts

Article 1 defines marriage as a special contract of permanent union between a man and a woman entered into in accordance with law.
Article 1 identifies marriage settlements as the limited area where parties may stipulate property relations during the marriage within the Code’s limits.
Article 61 defines the court’s authority to appoint an administrator for community or partnership property during legal separation.
Article 55 defines the term “child” by including a child by nature or by adoption.

Scope and coverage of marriage and persons

Article 2 requires legal capacity: the contracting parties must be a male and a female and must have capacity under the Code.
Article 5 allows any male or female aged eighteen years or upwards who is not under impediments in Articles 37 and 38 to contract marriage.
Article 26 provides that marriages solemnized outside the Philippines and valid where celebrated are valid in the Philippines, subject to the prohibitions in Articles 35 (1), (4), (5) and (6), 36, 37 and 38.
Article 33 covers valid license-free marriages among Muslims or among members of the ethnic cultural communities, when solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites or practices.
Article 34 covers a license-free marriage for parties who lived together as husband and wife for at least five years and without legal impediment, based on an affidavit and oath.

Marriage: requisites, licensing, and ceremony

Article 2 provides essential requisites: (1) legal capacity of contracting parties (male and female, with capacity under law) and (2) freely given consent in the presence of the solemnizing officer.
Article 3 sets formal requisites: (1) authority of the solemnizing officer; (2) a valid marriage license except where license is exempted in Chapter 2; and (3) a marriage ceremony with appearance before the solemnizing officer, personal declaration as husband and wife, and at least two witnesses of legal age.
Article 4 provides consequences: absence of any essential or formal requisites renders the marriage void ab initio, except for cases under Article 35 (2); defects in essential requisites render the marriage voidable as provided in Article 45; irregularities in formal requisites do not affect validity but impose civil, criminal, and administrative liability on responsible parties.
Article 6 provides that no prescribed form or religious rite is required, but parties must personally appear before the solemnizing officer and declare they take each other as husband and wife in the presence of at least two legal-age witnesses; the declaration must be contained in the marriage certificate signed by parties and witnesses and attested by the solemnizing officer; in articulo mortis where the party cannot sign, one witness may write the name of the party and it must be attested by the solemnizing officer.
Article 7 specifies solemnizing officers: (1) incumbent members of the judiciary within court’s jurisdiction; (2) duly authorized priests/rabbis/imams/ministers registered with the Civil Registrar General, acting within written authority and provided at least one party belongs to that religion; (3) ship captains or airplane chiefs only under Article 31; (4) military commanders during military operation only under Article 32; and (5) consuls-general/consuls/vice-consuls under Article 10.
Article 8 requires public solemnization within defined places: chambers of the judge or open court; church/chapel/temple; or consular offices—except for deathbed marriages, remote places under Article 29, or when both parties request in writing and in a sworn statement that allows solemnization at a house or place designated by them.
Article 9 requires the marriage license to be issued by the local civil registrar of the city/municipality where either contracting party habitually resides, except where license is not required under Chapter 2.
Articles 10–12 require consular processing for Filipino marriages abroad and prescribe sworn applications and documentary proof of age/civil status through birth/baptismal certificates, with substitutions through residence certificates or sworn instruments when certificates are lost or not received, and with age proof by parental swearing or registrar conviction by visual examination.
Article 11 requires separate sworn applications for the license by each contracting party and enumerates required fields: full name, place of birth, age and date of birth, civil status, details of prior marriages and dissolution/annulment, present residence and citizenship, degrees of relationship, parents’ full details, and guardian/person having charge details for minors under twenty-one.
Article 12 provides that birth/baptismal certificates or certified copies presented need not be sworn and are exempt from documentary stamp tax; it also allows alternatives where certificates are destroyed/lost or not yet received, and removes the birth certificate requirement when parents swear to lawful age or when the local civil registrar is convinced of required age by looking at applicants upon personal appearance.
Articles 13–16 require additional documents for previously married parties (death certificate, final divorce decree abroad where applicable, or annulment/declaration of nullity decree; or affidavit if death certificate cannot be secured); require parental consent for parties between eighteen and twenty-one who were not emancipated; require parental advice for parties between twenty-one and twenty-five and impose a three months waiting period after publication when advice is not sought or is unfavorable; and require marriage counseling certificates in parental consent/advice cases, with license issuance suspended for three months from completion of publication if counseling certificates are not attached, while not affecting marriage validity.
Article 17 requires the local civil registrar to post a notice for ten consecutive days on the bulletin board and to request reports of any impediment; it also requires issuance after completion of the publication period.
Article 18 provides that impediments known or brought to the local civil registrar’s attention must be noted; the registrar still issues the license after publication unless ordered otherwise by a competent court—without petition filing fee or bond.
Article 19 prohibits collecting any sum in the nature of fee or tax other than prescribed fees; provides free issuance to indigent parties proven by affidavit or oath; and requires payment of prescribed fees before issuance.
Article 20 provides license validity of one hundred twenty days from date of issue and automatic cancellation at expiration if unused; it requires the expiry date to be stamped in bold characters.
Articles 21–22 require a certificate of legal capacity for foreign-citizen parties (or an affidavit for stateless/refugees) and require marriage certificates to state specified facts, including license issuance and compliance with parental consent/advice requirements and marriage settlement copy attachment if any.
Article 23 requires the solemnizing officer to furnish the original marriage certificate and to send duplicate and triplicate copies within fifteen days to the local civil registrar of the place of solemnization, with receipts; it requires retention of quadruplicate copies, original license, and in proper cases affidavits.
Articles 24–26 mandate that local civil registrars prepare required documents and administer oaths without charge, require registry book recording of applications strictly in order of receipt, and validate foreign marriages subject to the specified void-provisions.

Marriage exemptions from license requirement

Article 27 exempts marriages where either party is at the point of death (articulo mortis) from license requirement, and provides that the marriage remains valid even if the ailing party subsequently survives.
Article 28 exempts marriages when the residence of either party is so located that there is no means of transportation enabling personal appearance before the local civil registrar.
Article 29 requires the solemnizing officer to state in an affidavit executed before the local civil registrar (or authorized person) that the marriage was performed in articulo mortis or that transport is unavailable, and that the officer took necessary steps to ascertain ages/relationship and the absence of legal impediment.
Article 30 requires submission within thirty days after performance of the original affidavit and a legible copy of the marriage contract to the local civil registrar of the municipality where the marriage was performed.
Article 31 authorizes ship captains and airplane pilots to solemnize articulo mortis marriages between passengers or crew members not only during voyage/in-flight but also during stopovers at ports of call.
Article 32 authorizes a commissioned military commander to solemnize articulo mortis marriages between persons within the zone of military operation, whether armed forces or civilians.
Article 33 validates license-free marriages among Muslims or ethnic cultural communities when solemnized according to their customs, rites or practices.
Article 34 exempts license requirement when parties have lived together as husband and wife for at least five years and without any legal impediment, evidenced by affidavit by parties and an oath by the solemnizing officer that qualifications were ascertained and no legal impediment exists.

Void and voidable marriages: grounds and timing

Article 35 declares void marriages from the beginning, including marriages involving a party below eighteen years old; marriages solemnized by unauthorized persons unless both parties believed in good faith the officer had authority; marriages solemnized without license except those covered by Chapter 2; bigamous or polygamous marriages not falling under Article 41; marriages contracted through mistake of identity; and subsequent marriages void under Article 53.
Article 36 declares void from the beginning marriages where a party was psychologically incapacitated to comply with essential marital obligations, even if the incapacity manifests only after solemnization; the action for declaration of nullity prescribes in ten years after celebration.
Article 37 declares void from the beginning incestuous marriages between (1) ascendants and descendants of any degree and (2) brothers and sisters of full or half blood.
Article 38 declares void from the beginning marriages for public policy reasons, including relationships up to the fourth civil degree for collateral blood relatives, step-relations, in-law relationships, adoptive relationships, and cases where one party killed the other’s spouse or their own spouse with the intention to marry.
Article 39 establishes that the action or defense for declaration of absolute nullity does not prescribe.
Article 40 permits remarriage reliance solely on a final judgment declaring a previous marriage void.
Article 41 nullifies marriages contracted during subsistence of a previous marriage unless specific conditions are met: prior spouse has been absent for four consecutive years and the present spouse has a well-founded belief the absent spouse was already dead; in danger of death circumstances, absence of two years suffices under the Civil Code framework referenced in the provision; it also requires filing of a summary proceeding for presumptive death and does not prejudice reappearance.
Article 42 provides automatic termination of the subsequent marriage upon recording of the affidavit of reappearance, unless the previous marriage is annulled or declared void ab initio, and provides for recording with notice and without prejudice to judicial determination if disputed.
Article 43 prescribes effects of termination of a subsequent marriage: legitimacy of children conceived before termination; dissolution/liquidation of absolute community or conjugal partnership; forfeiture rules tied to bad faith; validity of marriage-reason donations with bad-faith revocation; revocation of bad-faith insurance beneficiary designation by the innocent spouse even if irrevocable; and disqualification of the bad-faith spouse from inheriting from the innocent spouse by testate and intestate succession.
Article 44 provides that if both spouses acted in bad faith, the subsequent marriage is void ab initio, and donations by reason of marriage and testamentary dispositions are revoked by operation of law.
Article 45 establishes annulment grounds existing at the time of marriage: lack of parental consent in case where party is eighteen or over but below twenty-one; unsound mind unless after coming to reason the party freely cohabited; fraud unless later free cohabitation after full knowledge; consent obtained by force/intimidation/undue influence unless later free cohabitation after cessation; physical incapacity to consummate continuing and incurable; and serious incurable sexually-transmissible disease.
Article 46 defines fraud for Article 45 (3) and restricts it to the enumerated circumstances: non-disclosure of final conviction involving moral turpitude; concealment by wife of pregnancy by another man; concealment of sexually transmissible disease (regardless of nature); concealment of drug addiction, habitual alcoholism, or homosexuality or lesbianism existing at marriage time; it further provides that no other misrepresentation/deceit constitutes fraud for annulment grounds.
Article 47 sets who may file annulment actions and the prescriptive periods: five years for several causes, with commencement tied to the relevant events (attainment of age twenty-one, discovery of fraud, disappearance/cessation of force/intimidation/undue influence, or marriage date for incapacity/disease causes).
Article 48 mandates State participation to prevent collusion and evidence fabrication/suppression in annulment/nullity cases, and prohibits judgments based on stipulation of facts or confession of judgment.
Article 49 requires the Court to provide support of spouses and custody/support of common children during pendency, giving paramount consideration to the children’s welfare and their choice of the parent as provided in Title IX, and to provide appropriate visitation rights.
Article 50 extends effects and requires the final judgment to provide for liquidation, partition, distribution of properties, custody/support of common children, and delivery of third presumptive legitimes unless already adjudicated; it also requires notice to spouses’ and community/conjugal partnership creditors for liquidation and provides reference for adjudication of conjugal dwelling and lot under Articles 102 and 129.
Article 51 requires delivery of presumptive legitimes computed as of the date of final judgment in cash, property or sound securities unless already provided by judicially approved mutual agreement; it provides enforcement via children/guardian/trustee and clarifies that delivery does not prejudice ultimate successional rights, while recognizing values received as advances on legitime.
Article 52 requires recording of judgment, partition/distribution, and presumptive legitime delivery in the appropriate civil registries and registries of property, or else the judgment does not affect third persons.
Article 53 bars remarriage by either former spouse until compliance with Article 52; otherwise, the subsequent marriage is null and void.
Article 54 provides legitimacy rules: children conceived or born before finality of annulment/nullity under Article 36 are legitimate; children conceived or born of the subsequent marriage under Article 53 are likewise legitimate.

Legal separation: grounds, defenses, and effects

Article 55 provides grounds for legal separation, including repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct; physical violence or moral pressure to compel change of religion/political affiliation; attempt/connivance to corrupt or induce prostitution; final judgment sentencing respondent to imprisonment of more than six years even if pardoned; drug addiction or habitual alcoholism; lesbianism or homosexuality; subsequent bigamous marriage in the Philippines or abroad; sexual infidelity or perversion; attempt against life; and abandonment without justifiable cause for more than one year.
Article 56 requires denial of legal separation on grounds such as: condonation; consent; connivance; both parties giving grounds; collusion to obtain decree; or prescription.
Article 57 requires filing within five years from occurrence of the cause for legal separation.
Article 58 bars trial before six months have elapsed from filing of the petition.
Article 59 requires the Court to take steps toward reconciliation and be satisfied that reconciliation is highly improbable.
Article 60 prohibits decrees of legal separation based on stipulation of facts or confession of judgment, and requires prosecuting attorney/fiscal participation to prevent collusion and evidence fabrication/suppression.
Article 61 provides that after filing, spouses are entitled to live separately; the Court designates either spouse or a third person as administrator of absolute community or conjugal partnership property in the absence of written agreement, with powers/duties as guardian under the Rules of Court.
Article 62 extends the support/custody provisions of Article 49 during pendency of legal separation.
Article 63 provides effects of the decree: spouses live separately without severing marriage bonds; dissolution/liquidation of absolute community or conjugal partnership with forfeiture of offending spouse’s net profits; custody of minor children to innocent spouse subject to Article 213; and disqualification of offending spouse from inheriting from innocent spouse by intestate succession, with revocation by operation of law of provisions favoring the offending spouse in the innocent spouse’s will.
Article 64 allows the innocent spouse, after finality, to revoke donations and insurance beneficiary designations in favor of the offending spouse, even if irrevocable, with registry recording and respect for alienations/liens/encumbrances registered in good faith before recording of the complaint; it requires written notification for insurance beneficiary effect, and sets the action period at five years from finality.
Article 65 requires that reconciliation be evidenced by a joint manifestation under oath signed by both spouses filed in the same legal separation proceeding.
Article 66 provides reconciliation consequences: termination of pending proceedings; setting aside of final decree of legal separation, while separation of property and forfeiture already effected subsist unless the spouses agree to revive their former property regime; it requires recording of the order in proper civil registries.
Article 67 provides the requirements for revival agreement executed under oath, specifying properties to be contributed anew, properties retained as separated properties, names/addresses/amounts of known creditors; it requires filing and a motion for approval with copies furnished to creditors and court measures to protect creditor interests after due hearing, with recording in property registries and protection rules for creditors not listed/not notified where debtor has sufficient separate properties.

Rights and obligations of spouses

Article 68 requires husband and wife to live together, observe mutual love, respect and fidelity, and render mutual help and support.
Article 69 requires spouses to fix the family domicile, and empowers the court to decide in disagreement; it permits court exemption from living with the other when the latter lives abroad or other valid and compelling reasons exist, subject to compatibility with family solidarity.
Article 70 imposes joint responsibility for family support; provides payment rules: expenses for support and conjugal obligations are paid from community property, and if absent, from income/fruits of separate properties, and if insufficient/absent, from separate properties.
Article 71 grants both spouses the right and duty to manage the household and requires expenses for management to be paid under Article 70 rules.
Article 72 authorizes the aggrieved spouse to apply to the court for relief when the other neglects duties to conjugal union or commits acts tending to bring danger, dishonor or injury.
Article 73 allows either spouse to exercise any legitimate profession/occupation/business/activity without the other’s consent; it allows objection only on valid, serious, and moral grounds; it requires court resolution of objection propriety and whether benefits accrued before or after objection, with enforcement against the separate property of the spouse who objected improperly if benefits accrued before objection; it also protects rights of good-faith creditors.

Property regime: marriage settlements and default rules

Article 74 states the governing order for property relations: marriage settlements executed before the marriage, then the Code provisions, then local custom.
Article 75 allows future spouses to agree in marriage settlements on absolute community, conjugal partnership of gains, complete separation of property, or any other regime; it imposes absolute community as the default when no marriage settlement exists or when the agreed regime is void.
Article 76 requires that any modification in marriage settlements be made before the celebration of the marriage, subject to specified cross-referenced rules.
Article 77 requires marriage settlements and modifications to be in writing, signed by parties, executed before marriage, and not prejudicial to third persons unless registered in the local civil registry where the marriage contract is recorded and in the proper registries of properties.
Article 78 permits a minor capable of marriage to execute marriage settlements, but requires that persons designated to consent to marriage under Article 14 are made parties to the agreement, subject to Title IX.
Article 79 requires that for a marriage settlement executed by a person under civil interdiction or other disability, the guardian appointed by a competent court must be a party to the agreement.
Article 80 provides that absent contrary stipulation, Philippine laws govern property relations regardless of place of celebration and residence, with exceptions for: both spouses being aliens; extrinsic validity of contracts affecting property not situated in the Philippines; and extrinsic validity of contracts in the Philippines affecting property situated in a foreign country whose laws require different formalities.
Article 81 voids stipulations in settlements or contracts for a future marriage, including donations between prospective spouses, if the marriage does not take place; it keeps valid stipulations that do not depend upon the celebration of the marriage.

Donations by reason of marriage

Article 82 defines donations by reason of marriage as those made before celebration, in consideration of the same, in favor of one or both future spouses.
Article 83 subjects these donations to ordinary donation rules under Title III of Book III of the Civil Code insofar as not modified by the Family Code provisions.
Article 84 limits donations in marriage settlements when spouses agree on a regime other than absolute community of property: donations to each other cannot exceed one-fifth of their present property, and any excess is void; donations of future property follow testamentary succession and will formalities.
Article 85 validates donations by reason of marriage of property subject to encumbrances and allocates outcomes: if foreclosure leads to sale for less than total secured obligation, donee is not liable for deficiency; if sale exceeds total obligation, donee is entitled to the excess.
Article 86 authorizes revocation of donations by reason of marriage in listed situations, including: marriage not celebrated or judicially declared void ab initio (except donations made in marriage settlements, governed by Article 81); marriage celebrated without required parental/guardian consent; annulment where donee acted in bad faith; legal separation where donee is guilty spouse; compliance with resolutory condition; or donee’s act of ingratitude under Civil Code donation rules.
Article 87 declares void any donation or grant of gratuitous advantage between spouses during marriage, direct or indirect, except moderate gifts on occasions of family rejoicing; it extends the prohibition to persons living together as husband and wife without a valid marriage.

Absolute community of property: start and composition

Article 88 provides that absolute community commences at the precise moment the marriage is celebrated; any stipulation (express or implied) that the community commences at another time is void.
Article 89 bars waiver of rights/shares/effects of absolute community during marriage except in case of judicial separation of property; when waiver occurs through judicial separation or after dissolution/annulment, it must appear in a public instrument and be recorded as required by Article 77, and creditors may petition for rescission to the extent needed to cover their credits.
Article 90 applies co-ownership provisions to absolute community matters not provided for in the Chapter.
Article 91 provides the default community property includes all property owned by spouses at marriage celebration or acquired thereafter, unless otherwise provided in the Chapter or in marriage settlements.
Article 92 excludes specific property from the community: property acquired during marriage by gratuitous title by either spouse and fruits/income unless expressly provided by donor/testator/grantor; property for personal and exclusive use (with jewelry included in the community); and property acquired before marriage by a spouse who has legitimate descendants by a former marriage plus fruits/income.
Article 93 establishes the presumption that property acquired during marriage belongs to the community unless proven excluded.

Absolute community: liabilities and gambling

Article 94 provides that the absolute community is liable for specified family and property obligations, including support of spouses and their common and legitimate children of either spouse (with illegitimate child support governed by support provisions), debts/obligations contracted during marriage for community benefit with administrator-spouse consent or both spouses, debts/obligations contracted without consent to the extent the family benefited, taxes/liens/charges/expenses including repairs upon community property, preservation taxes/expenses on separate property used by the family, expenses for professional/vocational courses or self-improvement, ante-nuptial debts insofar as redounded to benefit of the family, value of gifts to common legitimate children for self-improvement, specified ante-nuptial debts other than those covered above plus illegitimate child support and crime/quasi-delict liabilities to extent exclusive property is absent/insufficient treated as advances to be deducted upon liquidation, and litigation expenses between spouses unless groundless; it also provides that if community property is insufficient (except paragraph (9)), spouses are solidarily liable for the unpaid balance with their separate properties.
Article 95 provides that losses in gambling/chance/betting/sweepstakes or other gambling—whether permitted or prohibited—are borne by the loser and not charged to the community; winnings form part of community property.

Absolute community: administration and disposition

Article 96 provides that administration and enjoyment of community property belong to both spouses jointly; it states that in disagreement, the husband’s decision prevails but the wife may seek court remedy within five years from the date of the implementing contract; it allows a spouse to assume sole administration if the other is incapacitated/unable to participate, but it prohibits disposition or encumbrance without court authority or written consent of the other spouse—otherwise the disposition or encumbrance is void.
Article 96 treats unauthorized disposition or encumbrance as a continuing offer by the consenting spouse and third person, which may become a binding contract upon acceptance by the other spouse or by court authorization before withdrawal by either or both offerors.
Article 97 permits either spouse to dispose by will of his or her interest in the community property.
Article 98 prohibits donations of community property by either spouse without the consent of the other; it allows each spouse to make moderate donations from the community property without the other’s consent for charity or on occasions of family rejoicing or family distress.

Dissolution and liquidation of absolute community

Article 99 provides dissolution triggers: death of either spouse; decree of legal separation; annulment or declaration