Sept.

24, 2016

Marriage and Family Life

Marriage is a special contract of permanent
union between a man and a woman entered
into in accordance with law for the
establishment of conjugal and family life. It is
the foundation of a family and an inviolable
social institution whose nature,
consequences and incidents are governed by
law and not subject to stipulations.

ESSENTIAL

REQUISITES:
1) Legal capacity of the contracting
parties which shall be a man and a
woman;
2) Consent freely given by the
contracting parties in before a
solemnizing officer.

FORMAL

REQUISITES:
1) Authority of the solemnizing officer;
2) Valid marriage license;
3) Marriage ceremony which takes place
with the appearance of the contracting
parties before a solemnizing officer
and their personal declaration that
they take each other as husband and
wife and in the presence of two
witnesses of legal age.

Art. 7 Who may solemnize marriage:

1) Priest, rabbi, imam or any religious
minister;
2) Ship captain or airplane chief;
3) Military commander of a unit to which
a chaplain is assigned;
4) Consul general, consul or vice consul.

Marriage license is not required in case of:

1. Art. 27. Either or both party are at the
point of death;
2. Art. 28. Residence of either party is so
located that there is no means of
transportation.

3. Art. 33. Muslims provided the marriage

took place according to customs or
practices.
4. Art. 34 Lived together for at least five
years without any legal impediment;

Art.35. Marriages void from the beginning

(ab initio):
1) 18-21 w/o consent;
2) Solemnizing officer has no authority
unless done in good faith;
3) Without valid marriage license with
some exceptions;
4) Bigamous or polygamous marriage;
5) Mistake of identity;
6) Subsequent marriages that are void
under Art. 53;
7) Psychologically incapacitated under
Art. 36;
8) Incestuous marriage;
9) By reason of against public policy;
Marriage void because it is incestuous:
(1) Between ascendants and descendants
of any degree; and
(2) Between brothers and sisters, whether
of the full or half
blood.

Marriage void by reason of public policy:

(1) Between collateral blood relatives
whether legitimate or
illegitimate, up to the fourth civil degree;
(2) Between step-parents and step-children;
(3) Between parents-in-law and children-inlaw;
(4) Between the adopting parent and the
adopted child;
(5) Between the surviving spouse of the
adopting parent
and the adopted child;
(6) Between the surviving spouse of the
adopted child and
the adopter;
(7) Between an adopted child and a
legitimate child of the
adopter;
(8) Between adopted children of the same
adopter; and

(9) Between parties where one, with the

intention to marry
the other, killed that other person's spouse,
or his or her
own spouse.

Art. 11 Application for marriage license

(residence certificate not required by
contracting party, parents or guardians):
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)

Name;
Place of birth;
Age and date of birth;
Civil status;
If previously married when and where;
Present residence and citizenship;
Degree of relationship;
Name, residence and citizenship of
father;
9) Name, residence and citizenship of
mother;
10)
Name, residence and citizenship
of guardian or person in charge
without parents and below 21;
Art. 45 Grounds for Annulment except if the
other freely cohabited with his/her spouse:
1) 18 21 w/o consent (parents, guardian
or person with substitute parental
authority)
2) Unsound mind;
3) Consent obtained by fraud;
4) Consent obtained by force;
5) Physically incapable of (consummating
marriage)
6) Sexually transmissible disease
(afflicted and incurable);
Art. 55 Grounds for Legal Separation
1) Repeated physical violence or abuse
(towards spouse, common child or
child of petitioner)
2) Compels petitioner to change religious
or political affiliation.
3) Prostitution (induce the petitioner, a
common child, or a child of the
petitioner, to engage in, or connivance
in such corruption orinducement;
4) imprisonment of 6 years even if
pardoned;

5) drug addiction or habitual alcoholism;

6) homosexuality or lesbianism;
7) subsequent bigamous marriage;
8) sexual infidelity or perversion;
9) attempt against the life of petitioner;
10)
abandonment of petitioner w/o
justifiable cause.

Art. 231
Parental Authority can be suspended by the
court when there is:
a.
b.
c.
d.

Excessive harshness or cruelty;

Corrupting order, counsel or example;
Begging (compels the child);
Lasciviousness (subject the child or
allows the child to be subjected to)

Art. 74 Property relation shall be governed in

the following order:
1) Marriage settlement;
2) Provisions of the Family Code;
3) Local custom.

Art. 18. In case of any impediment known to

the local civil
registrar or brought to his attention, he shall
note down the
particulars thereof and his findings thereon
in the
application for marriage license, but shall
nonetheless issue
said license after the completion of the
period of
publication, unless ordered otherwise by a
competent court
at his own instance or that of any interest
party. No filing
fee shall be charged for the petition nor a
corresponding
bond required for the issuances of the order.
(64a)

Foreigner
Art. 21 Required to submit a certificate of
legal capacity to contract marriage issued by
their respective diplomatic or consular

officials. Stateless persons required to

submit an affidavit stating the circumstances
showing such capacity to contract marriage
in lieu of certificate of legal capacity;
Art. 26. All marriages solemnized outside the
Philippines,
in accordance with the laws in force in the
country where
they were solemnized, and valid there as
such, shall also be
valid in this country, except those prohibited
under Articles
35 (1), (4), (5) and (6), 3637 and 38. (17a)
Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen
and a
foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce
is thereafter
validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse
capacitating
him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse
shall have
capacity to remarry under Philippine law.
Art. 80. In the absence of a contrary
stipulation in amarriage settlement, the
property relations of the spousesshall be
governed by Philippine laws, regardless of
theplace of the celebration of the marriage
and their residence.
This rule shall not apply:
(1) Where both spouses are aliens;
(2) With respect to the extrinsic validity of
contractsaffecting property not situated in
the Philippines andexecuted in the country
where the property is located; and
(3) With respect to the extrinsic validity of
contractsentered into in the Philippines but
affecting propertysituated in a foreign
country whose laws require
differentformalities for its extrinsic validity.

Related Civil Code provisions:

Article 5. Acts executed against the
provisions of mandatory or prohibitory laws

shall be void, except when the law itself

authorizes their validity.
Article 11. Customs which are contrary to
law, public order or public policy shall not be
countenanced. (n)
Article 12. A custom must be proved as a
fact, according to the rules of evidence.
Article 15. Laws relating to family rights
and duties, or to the status, condition and
legal capacity of persons are binding upon
citizens of the Philippines, even though living
abroad.
Article 220. In case of doubt, all
presumptions favor the solidarity of the
family. Thus, every intendment of law or
facts leans toward the validity of marriage,
the indissolubility of the marriage bonds, the
legitimacy of children, the community of
property during marriage, the authority of
parents over their children, and the validity
of defense for any member of the family in
case of unlawful aggression.
Article 221. The following shall be void and
of no effect:
(1) Any contract for personal separation
between husband and wife;
(2) Every extra-judicial agreement, during
marriage, for the dissolution of the conjugal
partnership of gains or of the absolute
community of property between husband
and wife;
(3) Every collusion to obtain a decree of legal
separation, or of annulment of marriage;
(4) Any simulated alienation of property with
intent to deprive the compulsory heirs of
their legitime.
Article 222. No suit shall be filed or
maintained between members of the same
family unless it should appear that earnest
efforts toward a compromise have been
made, but that the same have failed, subject
to the limitations in article 2035.