Supreme Court tackles inheritance rights of illegitimate children

(UPDATED) The High Court is set to discuss Article 992 of the Civil Code which
says an illegitimate child has no right to inherit from the legitimate relatives of
his father or mother

Lian Buan
@lianbuan
Published 1,20 PM, August 12, 2019 -Rappler

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Supreme Court (SC) will tackle in oral
arguments on September 3 the rights of illegitimate children when it comes to
inheritance.
It roots from a petition filed in 2013 by Amadea Angela Aquino who is claiming
inheritance from her deceased grandfather, her father's father.

The Supreme Court had appointed as amici curiae, or experts on the matter,
retired justice Jose Vitug and University of the Philippines (UP) law professor
Elizabeth Pangalangan. Pangalangan teaches persons and family relations at the
UP College of Law.

The High Court will discuss, among others, Article 992 of the Civil Code, which
says that an illegitimate child has no right to inherit from the legitimate relatives
of his father or mother.
Redefining rights of illegitimate children was previously a legislative agenda
under former house speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
The petition
Petitioner Aquino was born on October 8, 1978, nine months after the death of
her father Arturo. Amadea claims that her father Arturo and mother Susan were
set to marry but were not able to because of Arturo's untimely death.
Amadea, therefore, was never declared in a legal document as a legitimate child
of Arturo.
Amadea, however, grew up as part of her father's clan and showed proof of her
grandfather Miguel taking care of, and providing for her while she was growing
up.
Her uncles, her father's brothers, excluded her from the settlement of
inheritance when the patriarch, Miguel, died.
Amadea is running after her inheritance as a rightful heir of Miguel.
Keeping schools safe from disasters in the Philippines
REPORT
from Save the Children
Published on 16 Aug 2019 —

View Original
The Asia Pacific region is one of the most disaster-prone areas in the world,
experiencing nearly half of the worldʼs natural disasters in the past decade.
Around 200 million children living in this region, are at risk of losing their lives,
their livelihood or face displacement from their homes because of natural
disasters. These disasters not only jeopardise a childʼs right to survival but
affects their basic education.
TYPHOON HAIYAN
In November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, one of the most powerful typhoons on
record, struck the Philippines. Darin, who was 18 years old at the time, was on a
bus to her hometown in Iloilo province when she saw the destruction the
typhoon had caused.
“I could not help myself from crying as I saw the aftermath of the disaster,” she
said. “Many houses and infrastructure were damaged, trees were uprooted,
roads were damaged, and communities were terribly affected.”
Darin thought that if people were more prepared, the impact may not have been
as big as it was.
WORKING WITH PRUDENCE FOUNDATION TO KEEP SCHOOLS SAFE
Since 2013, Save the Children have been working in partnership with Prudence
Foundation to ensure children in the Philippines are safe from disasters through
their joint Safe Schools project. Like Darin, the partnership recognises the
importance of education and preparedness in helping to reduce the risks
caused by natural disasters and supporting an early recovery.
The project provides direct training to children and teachers on how to better
prepare for, manage and quickly recover from the impacts of disasters. Known
as Batang (Child in Filipino) Empowered and Resilient Team (BERT) facilitators,
lead school children are trained to promote disaster preparedness and childrenʼs
rights among their fellow students. Equally teachers themselves are trained as
Advisors to ensure they have the capacity to support and coach BERT children.
HELPING CHILDREN TO BE BETTER PREPARED FOR DISASTERS
Darin, now a BERT Advisor in her school, can see the changes the project has
brought to her students. “Students did not know how to protect themselves
from disasters or natural hazards,” she said. However, after embedding disaster
risk reduction related activities into her lessons she noticed that students
became more aware of the different early warning systems and what do in times
of emergencies.
The impact of BERT has been so successful in increasing childrenʼs awareness
and preparedness for disasters, that the Filipino Department of Education
issued a memorandum to institutionalise BERT in every public school in the
Division of Iloilo. Subsequently, the project has grown from supporting an initial
10 partner schools, to training over 3,000 children as BERT facilitators across
313 schools in the Philippines.
WHATʼS NEXT FOR SAFE SCHOOLS IN THE PHILIPPINES?
With Prudence Foundationʼs continued support, we are now working with
national and local governments to address the challenges and barriers that
prevent the scale up of a safe schools initiative across the Philippines, providing
the opportunity to ensure all children and their families are safe from disasters.