Grounds for Declaration of Nullity, Annulment, Legal Separation and Potential Absolute divorce bill | EGM summary

Void Voidable Legal Separation Proposed Absolute divorce bill

Grounds Art 35
1) Those contracted by any party below 18
even with consent of parents/guardians;
2) Those solemnized by any person not
legally authorized to perform marriages
unless such marriages were contracted with
either or both parties believing in good faith
that the solemnizing officer had authority to
do so;
3) Those solemnized without a license,
except those covered in art 34 (lived
together as husband and wife for 5 years
without any legal impediment at the time of
the celebration of marriage provided they
shall state such facts in an affidavit);
4) Those bigamous or polygamous
marriages not falling under article 41 (under
declaration of presumptive death);
Art 45
For causes which must exist at the time of the
marriage
1)Party in whose behalf it is sought to have the
marriage annulled was 18-21 and marriage was
solemnized without consent of parents/guardian
unless after attaining age of majority, such party
freely cohabited with the other and both lived
together as husband and wife;
2)That either party was of unsound mind, unless
such party after coming to reason freely
cohabited with the other as husband and wife;
3)That consent of either party was obtained by
fraud unless such party afterwards, with full
knowledge of the facts of the fraud freely
cohabited as husband and wife
Art. 55. A petition for legal separation may be filed Grounds: (based on Senate Bill 2134, Authored by
on any of the following grounds: Risa Hontiveros)
1. Grounds for Article 55 (Legal separation), of the
(1) Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive
Family code, provided that physical violence and
conduct directed against the petitioner, a common
grossly abusive conduct need not be repeated
child, or a child of the petitioner;
offenses to be considered as a ground;
(2) Physical violence or moral pressure to compel
the petitioner to change religious or political
affiliation; 2. Article 45 (Annulment), provided that the ground
in number 2,5 and 6 may either have existed at the
time of the marriage or supervening after the
(3) Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the marriage;
petitioner, a common child, or a child of the
petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance 3. Psychological incapacity of either spouse, Article
in such corruption or inducement; 36 of the Family Code, whether or not the incapacity
was present at the time of the celebration of
marriage or later;
(4) Final judgment sentencing the respondent to
imprisonment of more than six years, even if
pardoned;
4. All acts mentioned under section 5 of RA 9262:
(5) Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the
respondent;
(a) Causing physical harm to the woman or her child;
(6) Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;

The fraud mentioned must pertain only to the

5) Those contracted through mistake of one
contracting party as to identity of the other;
6) Those subsequent marriages that are void
under article 53 (compliance with
requirement of art 52: recording of the
judgment of the nullity of previous marriage,
partition and distribution of properties,
delivery of presumptive legitime in the
appropriate civil registry and registries of
property, otherwise, void)
Art 36 (Psychological incapacity)
Marriage contracted by any party who at the
following: (art 46)
(1) Nondisclosure of previous conviction by
final judgment of crime involving moral turpitude
(2) Concealment by the wife of the fact that
at the time of the marriage, she was pregnant by
a man other than her husband;
(3) Concealment of sexually transmissible
disease, regardless of its nature, existing at the
time of the marriage; or
(4) Concealment of drug addiction, habitual
alcoholism or homosexuality or lesbianism
(7) Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent
bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or
abroad;
(8) Sexual infidelity or perversion;
(9) Attempt by the respondent against the life of the
petitioner; or
(10) Abandonment of petitioner by respondent
without justifiable cause for more than one year.
For purposes of this Article, the term "child" shall
include a child by nature or by adoption. (9a)
Art. 56. The petition for legal separation shall be
(b) Threatening to cause the woman or her child
physical harm;
(c) Attempting to cause the woman or her child
physical harm;
(d) Placing the woman or her child in fear of
imminent physical harm;
(e) Attempting to compel or compelling the woman
or her child to engage in conduct which the woman
or her child has the right to desist from or desist from
conduct which the woman or her child has the right
to engage in, or attempting to restrict or restricting
Grounds for Declaration of Nullity, Annulment, Legal Separation and Potential Absolute divorce bill | EGM summary
time of the celebration of the marriage was
psychologically incapacitated to comply with
the essential marital obligations of marriage
shall likewise be void even if such incapacity
become manifest only after its solemnization
Art 37 (Incestuous Marriages)
The ff marriages are void from the beginning
whether relationship is legitimate or
illegitimate
1) Between ascendants and descendants of
ANY degree;
2) Between brothers and sisters, whether
full or half blood.
Art 38 (Void for reasons of public
policy)
1) Between collateral blood relatives,
whether legitimate or illegitimate, up to 4th
civil degree;
2) Between step-parents and step-children;
3) Between parent-in-law and
children-in-law;
4) Between adopting parent and adopted
child;
5) Between survising spouse of adopting
parent and adopted child;
6) Between surviving spouse of adopted
child and adopter;
7) Between adopted child and legitimate
child of adopter;
8) Between adopted child of the same
adopter;
9) Between parties where one, with the
intention to marry the other, killed that other
existing at the time of the marriage.
No other misrepresentation or deceit as to
character, health, rank, fortune or chastity shall
constitute such fraud as will give grounds for
action for the annulment of marriage. (86a)
(4) That the consent of either party was obtained
by force, intimidation or undue influence, unless
the same having disappeared or ceased, such
party thereafter freely cohabited with the other
as husband and wife;
(5) That either party was physically incapable of
consummating the marriage with the other, and
such incapacity continues and appears to be
incurable; or
(6) That either party was afflicted with a
sexually-transmissible disease found to be
serious and appears to be incurable. (85a)
Art. 41. (voidable - subsequent marriage is a
valid marriage although it is conditional -
because it is without prejudice to the
reappearance of the absent spouse)
A marriage contracted by any person during
subsistence of a previous marriage shall be null
and void, unless before the celebration of the
subsequent marriage, the prior spouse had been
absent for four consecutive years and the spouse
present has a well-founded belief that the absent
spouse was already dead. In case of
disappearance where there is danger of death
under the circumstances set forth in the
provisions of Article 391 of the Civil Code, an
absence of only two years shall be sufficient.
For the purpose of contracting the subsequent
marriage under the preceding paragraph the
spouse present must institute a summary
proceeding as provided in this Code for the
declaration of presumptive death of the
absentee, without prejudice to the effect of
denied on any of the following grounds:
(1) Where the aggrieved party has condoned the
offense or act complained of;
(2) Where the aggrieved party has consented to the
commission of the offense or act complained of;
(3) Where there is connivance between the parties
in the commission of the offense or act constituting
the ground for legal separation;
(4) Where both parties have given ground for legal
separation;
(5) Where there is collusion between the parties to
obtain decree of legal separation; or
(6) Where the action is barred by prescription.
(100a)
the woman's or her child's freedom of movement or
conduct by force or threat of force, physical or other
harm or threat of physical or other harm, or
intimidation directed against the woman or child.
This shall include, but not limited to, the following
acts committed with the purpose or effect of
controlling or restricting the woman's or her child's
movement or conduct:
(1) Threatening to deprive or actually depriving the
woman or her child of custody to her/his family;
(2) Depriving or threatening to deprive the woman
or her children of financial support legally due her or
her family, or deliberately providing the woman's
children insufficient financial support;
(3) Depriving or threatening to deprive the woman
or her child of a legal right;
(4) Preventing the woman in engaging in any
legitimate profession, occupation, business or
activity or controlling the victim's own mon4ey or
properties, or solely controlling the conjugal or
common money, or properties;
(f) Inflicting or threatening to inflict physical harm
on oneself for the purpose of controlling her actions
or decisions;
(g) Causing or attempting to cause the woman or her
child to engage in any sexual activity which does not
constitute rape, by force or threat of force, physical
harm, or through intimidation directed against the
woman or her child or her/his immediate family;
(h) Engaging in purposeful, knowing, or reckless
conduct, personally or through another, that alarms
Grounds for Declaration of Nullity, Annulment, Legal Separation and Potential Absolute divorce bill | EGM summary
person’s spouse or his or her own
Art. 40. The absolute nullity of a previous
marriage may be invoked for purposes of
remarriage on the basis solely of a final
judgment declaring such previous marriage
void. (n). (my note - otherwise, such
subsequent marriage is void)
Article 41 - remarriage of the deserting
spouse
reappearance of the absent spouse. (83a)
or causes substantial emotional or psychological
distress to the woman or her child. This shall include,
but not be limited to, the following acts:
(1) Stalking or following the woman or her child in
public or private places;
(2) Peering in the window or lingering outside the
residence of the woman or her child;
(3) Entering or remaining in the dwelling or on the
property of the woman or her child against her/his
will;
(4) Destroying the property and personal belongings
or inflicting harm to animals or pets of the woman or
her child; and
(5) Engaging in any form of harassment or violence;
(i) Causing mental or emotional anguish, public
ridicule or humiliation to the woman or her child,
including, but not limited to, repeated verbal and
emotional abuse, and denial of financial support or
custody of minor children of access to the woman's
child/children.
5. The commission of the crime of rape by the
respondent spouse against the petitioner-spouse
before the celebration of marriage;
6. When one of the spouses has been sentenced by
final judgment under RA 9262 or a permanent
protection order has been issued in favor of the
petitioner spouse against the other spouse under the
said act; RA no 9995 and RA 9775, whether or not
the complainants in the criminal cases filed under
the mentioned acts is the petitioner-spouse or their
common children;
Grounds for Declaration of Nullity, Annulment, Legal Separation and Potential Absolute divorce bill | EGM summary

7. When the spouses are legally separated by judicial

decree under article 55 of the family code of the
Philippines for at least 2 years;

8. When the spouses have been separated in fact for

at least 5 years at the time the petition for absolute
divorce is filed and reconciliation is highly
improbable;

(ii) Irreconcilable marital differences or irreparable

breakdown of marriage despite earnest efforts at
reconciliation.