Family law in the Philippines is anchored primarily on Executive Order No. 209, widely known as the Family Code of the Philippines, which took effect on August 3, 1988. Characterized by its protection of marriage as an "inviolable social institution," Philippine family law stands out globally for its unique provisions, particularly regarding the absence of an absolute divorce law for non-Muslim citizens.

Understanding the legal requirements under this framework requires an examination of the rules governing marriage, its dissolution, property relations, and parental authority.

I. The Threshold of Marriage: Essential and Formal Requisites

For a marriage to be legally recognized in the Philippines, it must satisfy two sets of strict statutory requirements outlined in Article 2 and Article 3 of the Family Code.

1. Essential Requisites

The essential requisites focus on the personal attributes and intent of the contracting parties:

Legal Capacity: The contracting parties must be a male and a female, and both must be at least 18 years old. The law strictly prohibits same-sex marriages and marriages involving minors, even with parental consent.
Consent Freely Given: The parties must willingly offer their consent in the presence of a legally designated solemnizing officer. Consent cannot be obtained through force, intimidation, undue influence, or fraud.

2. Formal Requisites

The formal requisites dictate the structural and procedural steps necessary to execute the marriage:

Authority of the Solemnizing Officer: The marriage must be performed by an individual legally authorized by the State. These include members of the judiciary (within their jurisdiction), registered priests, rabbis, imams, or ministers of recognized churches, and ship captains or military commanders under specific emergency circumstances.
A Valid Marriage License: Issued by the local civil registrar where either party resides, after a mandatory 10-day posting period intended to surface any impediments to the union.
The Marriage Ceremony: A formal proceeding where the contracting parties personally declare before the solemnizing officer, and in the presence of at least two witnesses of legal age, that they take each other as husband and wife.

Legal Consequences of Non-Compliance

Crucial Rule on Validity (Article 4):

Absence of any essential or formal requisite renders the marriage void from the beginning (void ab initio). (Exception: If the marriage is performed by an unauthorized person, but either or both parties believed in good faith that the officer had authority).

A defect in an essential requisite makes the marriage voidable (valid until legally annulled).
An irregularity in a formal requisite (e.g., a technical flaw in the marriage license processing) does not affect the validity of the marriage, but the responsible parties may face civil, criminal, or administrative liability.

II. Exemptions from the Marriage License Requirement

The law recognizes extraordinary circumstances where a marriage can be validly solemnized without a prior marriage license. These exceptions are restricted to the following:

Marriages in Articulo Mortis (Article 27): When either or both of the contracting parties are at the point of death, the marriage may be solemnized without a license.
Marriages in Remote Places (Article 28): If there are no means of transportation to enable the parties to obtain a license from the local civil registrar, a license is exempted.
Five Years of Continuous Cohabitation (Article 34): Commonly referred to as a "common-law marriage exemption." If a man and a woman have lived together as husband and wife for at least five uninterrupted years without any legal impediment to marry during that entire period, they may marry by executing a joint affidavit attesting to their cohabitation.
Marriages Among Muslims or Ethnic Cultural Communities (Article 33): Validly celebrated in accordance with their customs, rites, or the Code of Muslim Personal Laws.

III. The Dissolution and Severance of Marital Ties

Because the Philippines does not recognize absolute divorce in its general civil legislation (except under the Code of Muslim Personal Laws or through the judicial recognition of a foreign divorce obtained by an alien spouse), marital distress is legally addressed via three pathways: Declaration of Absolute Nullity, Annulment, and Legal Separation.

Legal Remedy	Status of Marriage Bond	Primary Grounds	Timeline for Filing
Declaration of Nullity (Art. 35, 36, 37, 38)	Treated as if it never existed (Void ab initio)	Psychological incapacity, bigamy, incest, lack of requisites	Imprescriptible (Can be filed anytime)
Annulment (Art. 45)	Valid until judicially severed (Voidable)	Fraud, lack of parental consent (if aged 18–21), force, impotence, STDs	Within 5 years of discovering the ground or turning 21
Legal Separation (Art. 55)	Remains intact (Bed and board separation only; no right to remarry)	Physical abuse, abandonment, infidelity, drug addiction, criminal conviction	Within 5 years from the occurrence of the offense

1. Declaration of Absolute Nullity (Void Marriages)

This applies to marriages that were fundamentally flawed from inception. The most heavily litigated ground is Article 36: Psychological Incapacity.

Legal Evolution Note: In accordance with prevailing jurisprudence (Tan-Andal v. Andal), psychological incapacity is no longer viewed as a clinical or medical illness. Instead, it is treated as a legal concept denoting a durable, deeply ingrained personality structure that renders a spouse utterly incapable of fulfilling essential marital obligations (such as mutual love, fidelity, respect, and support). It must exist at the time of the celebration of the marriage, even if it manifests only later.

Other void marriages include:

Incestuous marriages (between ascendants/descendants, brothers/sisters).
Marriages contrary to public policy (e.g., between step-parents and step-children, or adoptive parent and adoptive child).
Bigamous or polygamous marriages executed without a prior judicial declaration of presumptive death or nullity of a previous marriage.

2. Annulment (Voidable Marriages)

Annulment applies to a marriage that is structurally valid but suffers from a vice of consent. Under Article 45, a marriage may be annulment if:

The party was between 18 and 21 years old and married without parental consent (unless they freely cohabited after reaching 21).
Either party was of unsound mind at the time of the wedding.
Consent was obtained through fraud (e.g., concealment of a prior criminal conviction, drug addiction, homosexuality, or pregnancy by another man).
Consent was obtained through force, intimidation, or undue influence.
Physical impotence or an incurable, serious sexually transmitted disease exists.

IV. Property Regimes Between Spouses

Before celebrating a marriage, the future spouses may execute a prenuptial agreement (Marriage Settlement) to dictate how their properties will be managed and divided. In the absence of a prenuptial agreement, the law applies a default property regime based on the date the marriage was celebrated.

1. Absolute Community of Property (ACP) – The Modern Default

For all marriages celebrated on or after August 3, 1988, the default regime is ACP. Under this system, all properties owned by the spouses before the marriage, as well as those acquired during the marriage, are merged into a single common fund.

Exclusions: Properties acquired by gratuitous title (inheritance or donation) during the marriage, property for personal and exclusive use (except jewelry), and property acquired before the marriage by a spouse who has legitimate descendants from a prior marriage.

2. Conjugal Partnership of Gains (CPG)

The default regime for marriages celebrated prior to August 3, 1988 (under the old Civil Code). Under CPG, each spouse retains ownership of their exclusive properties brought into the marriage. Only the fruits, income, and properties acquired through joint effort or chance during the marriage form the common fund, which is divided upon dissolution.

3. Complete Separation of Property

This regime only applies if explicitly stipulated in a validly executed prenuptial agreement. Each spouse maintains exclusive ownership, administration, and enjoyment of their respective properties, earnings, and assets, whether acquired before or during the marriage.

V. Paternity, Filiation, and Parental Authority

The legal status of a child dictates their rights to support, successional rights (inheritance), and custody.

1. Legitimate vs. Illegitimate Status

Legitimate Children: Children conceived or born inside a valid marriage. They are legally entitled to bear the surnames of their father and mother, receive support, and claim full legitime (successional inheritance).
Illegitimate Children: Children born outside a valid marriage. Under Republic Act No. 9255, illegitimate children may use the surname of their father if the father has expressly recognized filiation through the record of birth or a public document. However, their legal successional share is traditionally equivalent to only half of a legitimate child's share.

2. Parental Authority (Patria Potestas)

Parental authority encompasses the joint right and duty of parents to provide for, rear, educate, and legally represent their minor children.

For Legitimate Children: Exercised jointly by the father and mother. In cases of disagreement, the law historically favored the father's decision, subject to judicial recourse by the mother.
For Illegitimate Children: Parental authority and sole legal custody belong exclusively to the mother, regardless of whether the father recognizes the child or provides financial support.
The Tender-Age Presumption: In structural separations or custody disputes, the law mandates that no child under 7 years of age shall be separated from the mother, unless the court finds compelling reasons (e.g., severe moral depravity or abandonment) to declare the mother unfit.