PHILIPPINE ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE

Annulment

It’s not unusual for a western male to fall in love with a Filipina who is married. It’s hardly as scandalous as it sounds, though. The fact is that divorce has been impossible in the Philippines for almost fifty years. It literally does not exist. As a result, when a Filipino marriage begins to fall apart, the husband and wife have two options. They can either live together and suffer each other’s company or they can split up and move away from one another. Either way, they remain married.

This is a particular problem for Filipinas who are abused by their husbands or who have been abandoned. Abandonment is quite common. A husband tires of his wife, his daily routine, whatever, so he simply packs up his bags and moves away to start another life, often with a mistress. Alternatively, the wife of an abusive husband may flee her home for her own safety, or that of her children. In either of these situations, the woman remains legally bound to her husband. She remains married and cannot get divorced, whether her husband left her or she left him.

Yet one can hardly blame a woman for dreaming of a better life with a better man. She may not have seen her husband for a year, five years, even ten years. Perhaps she knows where he is, perhaps not. He might even be dead, for all she knows. Still, her entire life is on hold. She wants to start over, to have a happy marriage and a happy life, but she cannot remarry until she is divorced, and divorce is simply impossible.

Fortunately, she does have one option, one slim ray of hope: Annulment.

Annulment is simply a voided marriage. In the eyes of the Philippine government and the Catholic Church, an annulled marriage is a marriage that never really happened. It’s as if someone stepped into a time machine and traveled back in time and prevented the marriage from ever occurring. This is different from divorce, where everyone agrees there was a marriage, but that the divorce “ends” the marriage. Divorce terminates something that really existed – a marriage. Annulment points out that there never really was a marriage, thus there’s no need for divorce, and nothing to prevent the individuals in the annulled marriage from marrying again. Well, not exactly “again”, since the first marriage never happened, right? You get the idea.

The Family Code of the Philippines governs annulments. Here is the most pertinent section in that regard:

Chapter 3. Void and Voidable Marriages

Art. 35. The following marriages shall be void from the beginning:

(1) Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even with the consent of parents or 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 the legal authority to do so;

(3) Those solemnized without license, except those covered the preceding Chapter;

(4) Those bigamous or polygamous marriages not failing under Article 41;

(5) Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the other; and

(6) Those subsequent marriages that are void under Article 53.

Art. 36. A marriage contracted by any party who, at the time of the celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations of marriage, shall likewise be void even if such incapacity becomes manifest only after its solemnization. (As amended by Executive Order 227)

Art. 37. Marriages between the following are incestuous and void from the beginning, whether relationship between the parties be legitimate or illegitimate:

(1) Between ascendants and descendants of any degree; and

(2) Between brothers and sisters, whether of the full or half blood. (81a)

Art. 38. The following marriages shall be void from the beginning for reasons 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-in-law;

(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. (82)

Art. 39. The action or defense for the declaration of absolute nullity of a marriage shall not prescribe. (As amended by Executive Order 227 and Republic Act No. 8533; The phrase “However, in case of marriage celebrated before the effectivity of this Code and falling under Article 36, such action or defense shall prescribe in ten years after this Code shall taken effect” has been deleted by Republic Act No. 8533 [Approved February 23, 1998]).

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)

Art. 41. 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 reappearance of the absent spouse. (83a)

Art. 42. The subsequent marriage referred to in the preceding Article shall be automatically terminated by the recording of the affidavit of reappearance of the absent spouse, unless there is a judgment annulling the previous marriage or declaring it void ab initio.

A sworn statement of the fact and circumstances of reappearance shall be recorded in the civil registry of the residence of the parties to the subsequent marriage at the instance of any interested person, with due notice to the spouses of the subsequent marriage and without prejudice to the fact of reappearance being judicially determined in case such fact is disputed. (n)