Ms.

Paloma Campos
95 Tindalo Street
Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City

This letter contains the advices and opinions to the problems that you seek to solve upon coming to
our office. We will first lay down the facts that you have given us. From those facts, we will pick the
primordial issues to be answered and finally, we will be giving you the advices with the help of our legal
references.

During your visit to our office, you have stated the following facts:

1. That about last year, you met Joey Lopez and eventually fell in love with him.
2. That a few months ago, he confessed to you that he had a relationship with a certain Pepsi
Salva, who was a former employee in his uncle’s company, five years ago.
3. That Pepsi became pregnant with Joey’s child during their affair.
4. That despite the want of Pepsi for the two of them to get married, Joey was honest enough to
tell her that they were not meant for each other.
5. That Pepsi accepted his decision and they had broken up since then but Joey has consistently
given support to their child whom they named Vic.
6. That it was Pepsi who registered their son, using Joey’s surname Lopez and just told Joey about
the registration afterwards.
7. That you and Joey got the blessings from your parents and decided to get married on
December 17.
8. That last month, you received by mail copies of a marriage license issued by the Civil
Registrar’s office of Imus, Cavite, dated September 17, 2005 in favor of Joey and Pepsi and a
certificate of marriage showing that they were married at the office of some religious pastor at
the back of Manila City Hall on August 4, 2005.
9. That you have proven, through the help of experts, that the documents are forgeries.
10. That she confessed that in 2005 out of sheer desperation, she got the marriage license from
Cavite with someone’s help and paid for the marriage certificate from an office near the city
hall of Manila.
11. That Pepsi’s father appeared to have said that he would file charges of bigamy against Joey if
the latter marries you.
12. That you worry for the rights of your future children and your properties because of the
support Joey gives for his illegitimate son.

From these facts, the pertinent issues that we found to be solved are:

1. Whether or not Joey will be charged of bigamy because of the alleged existing marriage; and
2. Whether or not Joey’s illegitimate child have a right to claim from your properties

For the first issue, we should first know who can be charged of bigamy. Article 349 of the Revised
Penal Code provides that bigamy is charged against “…a person who shall contract a second or subsequent
marriage before the former has been legally dissolved…”. With this, we now have to know if there is indeed
a former marriage or if the alleged prior marriage in this case is valid.
 Marriage has essential and formal requisites and an absence of just one of them will render a
marriage void ab initio or void from the beginning (Article 4, Family Code). In other words, such marriage
will not be recognized. The essential requisites of marriage are the legal capacity of the contracting parties
and the consent freely given (Article 2, Family Code).

From the given set of facts, the alleged prior marriage can only be evidenced by the marriage
license and those records in the local civil registrar. With that, it is undisputed that the essential requisites
do not exist. Joey only became aware of the supposed marriage when the mail copies came to you. That
means, there was no consent given from his part. Therefore, the prior marriage in question is void ab initio.

For the second issue, we should know the liabilities of the Absolute Community and Conjugal
Partnership regarding support. We should check if they cover the support of an illegitimates child.

Absolute community of property is liable for the support of the spouses, their common children,
and legitimate children of either spouse; however, the support of illegitimate children shall be governed by
the provisions of this Code on Support (Article 94(1), Family Code). While conjugal partnership is liable
for the support of the spouse, their common children, and the legitimate children of either spouse;
however, the support of illegitimate children shall be governed by the provisions of this Code on Support
(Article 121(1), Family Code). It should be noted that this two regimes governing property relations both
refer to the provisions on Support when it comes with illegitimate children.

Article 197 of the Family Code provides that in case of legitimate ascendants; descendants, whether
legitimate or illegitimate, only the separate property of the person obliged to give support shall be
answerable. This means that Joey’s illegitimate child does not have any rights from your properties. He
cannot claim anything from you.

From the discussions mentioned above, we can say that Joey cannot be charged of bigamy for the
alleged subsisting marriage does not really exist. Nevertheless, you should file for a petition for declaration
of nullity of marriage for it was stressed in the case of Mercado v. Tan that “xxx the parties to a marriage
should not be allowed to assume that their marriage is void, even if such is the fact, but must first secure a
judicial declaration of nullity of their marriage before they should be allowed to marry again. x x x.”

For Joey’s obligation to support to his illegitimate child, you do not need to worry for Joey’s
separate property will be solely liable for it.

We hope that we helped you in answering your problems and that we enlightened you on the
things that you should do.

Yours truly,

Atty. Renee Nocase