(General information; not legal advice.)

1) What “support” means in Philippine family law

Philippine law treats support as a family duty, not as a punishment and not as a reward. It is meant to ensure that a spouse and/or a child has what is necessary to live with dignity consistent with the family’s means.

Under the Family Code, support generally covers what is indispensable for:

Sustenance (food and basic daily needs)
Dwelling (a reasonable home/roof over one’s head)
Clothing
Medical attendance (healthcare, medicine, therapy)
Education (including schooling or training for a profession, trade, or vocation—often recognized as continuing beyond the age of majority when justified)
Transportation (often tied to school, work, medical care, and essential errands)

Support is not limited to “bare survival.” The scope is tied to the family’s financial capacity and the recipient’s needs.

2) The governing principle: needs vs. capacity (no fixed formula)

A critical point for “computation” in the Philippines:

There is no single statutory percentage or fixed formula (e.g., “30% of income”) for child support or spousal support.

Instead, the law uses a proportionality standard:

Support is in proportion to the giver’s resources (means), and
in proportion to the recipient’s needs.

Because needs and resources change, support is variable: it may be increased or reduced as circumstances change.

3) Who can demand support, and from whom

Support obligations arise from specific family relationships. In the spousal-and-child context:

A. Child support

Both parents are obliged to support their children—legitimate or illegitimate—subject to proof of filiation (paternity/maternity) where disputed. This obligation exists regardless of custody and regardless of whether the parents were ever married.

Key implications:

A parent cannot refuse support because the other parent restricts visitation.
A parent cannot condition visitation on payment of support.
Support is the child’s right; parents are not supposed to barter it away.

B. Spousal support

Spouses have the duty to mutually support each other during a valid marriage. This duty can matter in:

ordinary marital life,
separation in fact (still married),
pending cases (e.g., legal separation, nullity, annulment) through support pendente lite (temporary support while the case is pending), and
certain post-judgment arrangements depending on the case type and findings (particularly in legal separation).

4) Support is demandable—but timing matters

Philippine doctrine treats support as demandable when the need exists, but enforcement commonly turns on when demand is made.

Practical takeaway:

Document the demand (written request, messages, lawyer’s letter, or filing in court).
Courts frequently anchor enforceable periods to judicial or extrajudicial demand, and order payment prospectively and/or from the point of demand depending on the facts.

5) What courts look at when setting the amount

Because there is no fixed formula, courts generally examine evidence in two buckets:

A. The recipient’s needs

For children, courts commonly consider:

age and health condition (including special needs),
school level (tuition, books, uniforms, projects, transport, tutoring),
medical and dental needs,
food and daily expenses,
housing and utilities allocation (portion attributable to the child),
childcare and caregiver costs,
reasonable extracurriculars consistent with prior lifestyle and parents’ means.

For a spouse (when applicable), courts may consider:

basic living expenses (housing, food, utilities, medical),
capacity to work, employability, and actual earning capacity,
standard of living during the marriage (within reason),
caregiving responsibilities that limit earning ability (e.g., primary childcare).

B. The obligor’s capacity (resources/means)

Courts may look beyond the headline salary and examine:

payslips, employment contracts, HR certifications, ITRs, SSS/GSIS records,
bank statements, remittances, e-wallet flows,
business income, professional fees, commissions, bonuses, allowances, per diem,
rental income, dividends, properties, vehicles and lifestyle indicators (when income is being concealed),
other dependents the obligor is legally required to support.

Important: Courts may assess earning capacity where a parent appears deliberately underemployed or hiding income, and may not accept “zero income” at face value when lifestyle evidence suggests otherwise.

6) “Computation” in practice: defensible ways to estimate support

Even without a fixed formula, there are common, court-defensible computation approaches. The strongest ones are needs-based and proportional.

Approach 1: Needs-based budget + proportional sharing (most defensible)

Step 1: Build a monthly child expense budget Example categories:

Food and groceries attributable to the child
School (tuition amortized monthly + fees)
Transportation
Healthcare/meds
Clothing/personal care
Utilities share (electricity, water, internet share)
Recreation/extracurriculars (reasonable)
Childcare (if applicable)

Step 2: Determine each parent’s share based on their means A practical method is to estimate each parent’s share of combined income (or combined resources).

If Parent A earns 70% of combined income and Parent B earns 30%, a starting point is 70/30 sharing of the child’s reasonable monthly needs.

Step 3: Credit in-kind support If the child lives primarily with one parent, that parent often provides in-kind support (housing, daily care, supervision). Courts may treat cash support from the non-custodial parent as the method to balance contributions—without pretending the custodial parent contributes “nothing.”

Illustrative example (not a legal formula):

Child’s reasonable monthly needs: ₱35,000
Parent A net monthly resources: ₱105,000
Parent B net monthly resources: ₱45,000
Combined: ₱150,000
Parent A share: 70% → ₱24,500
Parent B share: 30% → ₱10,500

If Parent B is custodial and already pays many items directly, Parent A may be ordered to:

pay ₱24,500 monthly to Parent B or
pay certain items directly (e.g., tuition + health insurance) plus a cash remainder.

Approach 2: Income-percentage heuristics (common in negotiation; weaker in strict law)

In private settlements, parties sometimes use informal heuristics (e.g., “x% of net income per child”). These are not mandated by statute and may not survive challenge if they ignore actual needs and capacity. Courts are more comfortable when the number is tied to documented needs.

Approach 3: Itemized direct-pay model (useful for schooling/medical)

Courts sometimes order combinations like:

tuition and school fees paid directly to the school,
health insurance premiums paid directly to provider,
fixed monthly cash allowance for food/transport/incidentals.

This reduces disputes about misuse and improves traceability.

7) What counts as “income” for support purposes

Philippine courts can treat “resources” broadly. Depending on the facts, the following may be considered:

basic salary, overtime (if consistent), commissions, bonuses (especially recurring),
allowances that function as real economic benefit (housing allowance, living allowance),
OFW remittances and foreign-sourced income,
profits from business or practice,
rental income and other passive income,
assets that generate value (and in some cases, the ability to liquidate or borrow reasonably).

Courts typically aim to avoid support amounts that are impossible to comply with, but they also resist attempts to artificially minimize resources.

8) Net vs. gross: which is used?

There is no single mandated method, but support disputes often turn on what is truly available after legitimate deductions.

Commonly argued deductions:

legally mandated contributions (SSS/GSIS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG),
withholding tax,
necessary work-related expenses (in some cases),
existing court-ordered support for other dependents.

Courts may be skeptical of:

“voluntary” deductions designed to shrink disposable income,
inflated personal expenses, luxury spending, or discretionary debt.

A practical way to present this is:

Gross receipts → subtract mandatory deductions → show reasonable necessary expenses → show disposable income.

9) Spousal support: when it is ordered and how it is computed

“Spousal support” in the Philippines is not the same as the divorce-based “alimony” systems in some countries, because the Philippines generally does not have divorce for most marriages (with notable exceptions such as Muslim personal law).

A. During a valid marriage (including separation in fact)

If spouses are still legally married, the duty of mutual support continues. Computation is still needs vs. capacity.

A spouse seeking support typically must show:

actual need and lack of sufficient means, and
the other spouse’s ability to contribute.

Courts also consider whether the spouse seeking support is capable of employment, and the childcare burdens affecting earning capacity.

B. Support pendente lite (temporary support while a case is pending)

In cases like nullity, annulment, legal separation, or other family disputes, courts can order support pendente lite. This is meant to stabilize living conditions while litigation is ongoing, especially for children.

Procedurally, temporary support can be sought under the Rules of Court (Support Pendente Lite) and relevant Supreme Court rules on family cases/provisional orders, depending on the nature of the main case.

C. After legal separation

In legal separation, the marriage bond is not severed, but spouses may live apart and property relations may be affected. Courts may order support consistent with the Family Code and the judgment’s findings (including fault-based consequences under legal separation rules). Child support continues regardless.

D. After declaration of nullity or annulment

Once the marriage is declared void ab initio or annulled (depending on the case), the spousal relationship changes legally, and spousal support as between spouses generally does not continue in the same way, though financial consequences can arise through property relations, damages, and obligations in the judgment. Child support remains.

E. Muslim personal law (PD 1083)

For Muslims covered by the Code of Muslim Personal Laws, divorce and post-separation obligations may operate under PD 1083 and Shari’a court practice. Support principles still revolve around need and capacity, but parties should account for the applicable personal law framework.

10) Property regimes and where support is charged

For married couples, support for the family is typically charged against the community/conjugal property (depending on whether the marriage is under Absolute Community of Property or Conjugal Partnership of Gains). If those are insufficient, the law contemplates resort to exclusive property in appropriate situations.

This matters because a spouse may argue:

support should come from common funds rather than solely from one spouse’s paycheck, or
common funds are being controlled by one spouse, necessitating court intervention.

11) Evidence that wins (or loses) support cases

Support determinations are evidence-heavy. Common winning evidence includes:

For the child’s needs:

school assessment forms, tuition statements, receipts, enrollment documents
medical records, prescriptions, therapy plans, hospital estimates
proof of rent/mortgage and utilities (to allocate a reasonable child share)
a detailed monthly budget with supporting documents

For capacity to pay:

payslips, employment certifications, HR letters, ITRs
bank records/remittances, proof of bonuses/commissions
business permits, invoices, audited statements (if self-employed)
lifestyle evidence (vehicles, travel, property) when concealment is alleged

What often fails:

unsupported claims like “my child needs ₱100,000/month” without detail
“I have no job” with obvious lifestyle contradictions
numbers presented as percentages without any needs analysis

12) Process: how support is obtained in court

Support can be sought through different procedural paths depending on the relationship and pending cases. Common routes include:

Demand and negotiation (written demand; proposed budget; proof exchange)
Petition/action for support (often in the proper Family Court/Regional Trial Court designated as a Family Court)
Support pendente lite for immediate temporary relief while the main case proceeds
In cases involving violence against women/children: relief may also be obtained through protection orders that include financial support components.

Venue and procedural details depend on the case type and the parties’/child’s residence.

13) Enforcement: what happens if support is not paid

A support order is enforceable like other judgments, with family-law-specific tools.

Common enforcement mechanisms:

Execution and collection of arrears
Garnishment (including bank deposits, receivables, sometimes wages)
Contempt for willful disobedience of court orders
Direct payment orders (e.g., to school or medical provider)

Special note on RA 9262 (VAWC)

Failure to provide financial support can also intersect with economic abuse under the Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children Act (RA 9262) in appropriate relationships covered by the law. Protection orders can include directives related to financial support and support-related conduct.

14) Modification: increasing, reducing, or terminating support

Because support is variable, courts may modify it upon a showing of substantial change in circumstances, such as:

Increase scenarios:

tuition increases; child enters higher grade/college
medical condition arises
paying parent’s income substantially increases
inflation and cost-of-living changes (when significant and proven)

Reduction scenarios:

paying parent loses job or suffers verified income reduction
new legal dependents (case-specific and not automatic)
recipient’s needs decrease (e.g., graduation, employment, change of custody)

Termination scenarios (child support):

child becomes self-supporting (fact-specific)
adult child no longer pursuing education/training reasonably
death of obligor or recipient (with nuances in estate obligations)
adoption (parental rights/obligations shift to adoptive parents)

Modifications generally require going back to court (or a court-approved agreement), especially when there is an existing order.

15) Common misconceptions (and the correct Philippine view)

“Support is a fixed % of salary.” Not under statute. Courts focus on needs and capacity.
“No visitation, no support.” / “No support, no visitation.” Wrong. These are separate obligations/rights.
“Support only means food.” Support includes education, medical, housing components, and more, consistent with means.
“Support is owed only if married.” Child support exists regardless of marriage; illegitimate children are entitled to support.
“Support can be permanently waived.” The right to support is generally treated as non-waivable in principle, especially as to the child; settlements must respect the child’s welfare.

16) Practical blueprint for a strong, court-ready support computation

When preparing a support proposal (or contesting one), a structured blueprint usually performs best:

List beneficiaries (child/children; spouse if applicable).
Prepare a monthly needs schedule per child (with documents).
Identify each parent’s proven resources (not just claimed salary).
Allocate shares proportionally based on means, crediting in-kind support.
Choose a payment structure (cash + direct-pay items).
Add clarity provisions (due date, payment channel, treatment of tuition increases, extraordinary medical expenses, receipts and reporting).
Build in review mechanics (e.g., annual review or upon specified triggers), while keeping the child’s welfare central.

Conclusion

In the Philippines, “computation” of spousal and child support is fundamentally evidence-driven and governed by proportionality: the recipient’s reasonable needs measured against the obligor’s resources and earning capacity, always with the child’s welfare as a primary concern. Because circumstances change, support is designed to be adjustable, enforceable through court processes and, in appropriate cases, through protective statutory remedies.