Some Filipinos want and do get married outside the Philippines. There’s nothing really strange with this, except when they say that the reason is for convenience in getting a divorce abroad. This is strange for two main reasons:
1. Divorce is not recognized under Philippine laws. If you’re a Filipino, it doesn’t matter where you get a divorce – such divorce is invalid/void in the Philippines. This is because under the nationality principle (Art. 15, Civil Code), all Filipinos – where they may be in the world - are bound by Philippine laws on family rights and duties, status, condition, and legal capacity. Yes, folks, you can run, but you can’t hide.Nevertheless, divorce decrees secured outside the Philippines are recognized in certain instances. This is provided in Article 26 (Paragraph 2) of the Family Code, which reads in full:
ART. 26. All marriages solemnized outside the Philippines in accordance with the laws in force in the country where they were solemnized, and valid there as such, shall also be valid in this country, except those prohibited under Articles 35(1), (4), (5) and (6), 36, 37 and 38.
Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have capacity to remarry under Philippine law.
The twin elements for the application of this provision are:
1. There is a valid marriage that has been celebrated between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner; and
2. A valid divorce is obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating him or her to remarry.
At first glance, Article 26 seems to apply only to a marriage between a Filipino and a foreigner. This was raised by a respected commentator in family law, Justice Sempio-Diy, who noted that Art. 26 does not apply:
…to a divorce obtained by a former Filipino who had been naturalized in another country after his naturalization, as it might open the door to rich Filipinos’ obtaining naturalization abroad for no other reason than to be able to divorce their Filipino spouse (Handbook on the Family Code of the Philippines, 1995 Ed., p. 30).
However, this provision was later interpreted by the Supreme Court to include cases involving parties who, at the time of the celebration of the marriage were Filipino citizens, but later on, one of them becomes naturalized as a foreign citizen and obtains a divorce decree. The reckoning point is not the citizenship of the parties at the time of marriage, but their citizenship at the time a valid divorce is obtained abroad by the alien spouse capacitating the latter to remarry. (Philippines vs. Orbecido III, G.R. No. 154380, 5 October 2005).
2. Marriage is supposed to be forever. From an idealistic non-legal standpoint, the sole reason for marriage should be love; the kind of love that transcends time and withstands any impediments that life throws our way. From a legal perspective, on the other hand, no less than the Philippine Constitution (Art. XV, Sec. 2) and the Family Code (Art. 1) expressly characterize marriage as the foundation of the family and an inviolable social institution. The law states that it is a special contract of a permanent union between a man and a woman (sorry, same sex marriage is not yet recognized in the Philippines). It is inviolable. It is permanent. In short, you don’t think of divorce when you get married.
You may also want to read these related posts:
Psychological Incapacity: Habitual Lying by Atty. Fred on July 22nd, 2006
Costs in seeking an annulment by Atty. Fred on July 20th, 2007
Guidelines in Psychological Incapacity (Article 36, Family Code) by jlp on July 22nd, 2006
It makes me extremely sad reading some of the posts on this site. I am a foreigner (a UK citizen) and have a fiancée who is a Filipina, I had thought that our problems might be quite rare but it seems that there is a great deal of pain and misery being caused by the requirements of your legal system to all and sundry.
Having been bought up in the Catholic faith I do understand the “marriage is forever” issue in the Philippines however from a practical point of view it just seems to create a great deal of unhappiness and pain to the parties involved.
My situation is that my partner was married, aged 21, 12 years ago in Manila in a civil ceremony to a Korean citizen. She went to live in Korea with her husband whereupon she found herself treated as a housemaid by her new family. The man was a gambler and the marriage fell apart within 2 months.
Through Nakakahiya my partner did not want to let anyone at home know how badly wrong things had gone so she kept it to herself but in short order she managed to find work in Korea and spent the next four years sending money home to her family in Manila.
The husband sought a divorce after about 6 months and my partner agreed on the grounds that she mistakenly thought that he could get her Korean citizenship.
To cut a long story short, he got the divorce he wanted, my partner ended up losing her Filipino citizenship, basically she is stateless now.
She illegally overstayed on her Korean visa and the one year work permit that he helped her, get however she returned to the Philippines after 4 years on an amnesty for overstays.
While abroad she was a good girl who sent lots of money back to help her family but much of the help was squandered by the people back home and all her investments came to nothing (she did not really have enough capital or enough experience to manage it)
So here we are 12 years later and my partner has been back in Manila for the last 8 years. She is now stateless; trying to fix that has been a nightmare for us. She is divorced and has Korean divorce papers but reading this forum it looks like we will have loads of extra work to do before we can be sure it is safe to marry.
Our lawyer has turned out to be useless; he has gone back on the terms of our agreed contract and made us pay extra for the citizenship case. (I doubt that he knew how to deal with our case in the first place).
On reading this forum I can now see that even if we eventually get my partners citizenship and passport back and I marry her in the UK (because I cannot currently get her out of the Philippines due to her being stateless) that we will still have long term problems having the new marriage recognised in the Philippines.
So although we will be a married couple, I will still required to go through all the visa regulations every x number of months to allow me to stay in the Philippines as our UK marriage will not be recognised by your judicial system and my partner will still be considered married to the Korean that she has not seen for 11 years in spite of her divorce.
I love my partner and I will do anything to fix her life, she has had so many bad things happen in her life and she deserves a chance of some happiness as she is a good person at heart.
I also love your country and I love the people but I get so depressed trying to deal with your legal system.
Atty. Fred , as I had read and what i understand in that article 26 in Family code , is that upon a foreign obtained a divorce decree in his country and proven that he is not a filipino citizen at the time the divorce decree obtained , me here in the philippines has the capacity of remarry too. I have gone to NSO and they asking me to go the lower court to apply for the ” RECOGNITION AND ENFORCEMENT OF FOREIGN JUDGEMENT ” my question is why we have the law in the family code where we dont apply it here in the philippines ? and If my divorce dated on SEPTEMBER 27,2006 is not yet recognized here in the philippines and I got married last JANUARY 30,2007 and im working now in the recognition of my divorce here does it mean my marriage last January is not valid ? PLs help Im really confused with this conflict of law. tnx .
Josie, an entry of judgment is done after the period to file an appeal had lapsed (but there are steps that should still be done after this…as you may have read from the related post that I pointed to). If the decree of annulment is already registered with the Civil Registry where the marriage was registered, the Civil Registry of the place where the court is situated, and in the National Census and Statistics Office, then you should be no problem in securing the marriage license.
Atty. Fred,
I am just waiting for the decree of our annuled marriage, the entry of judgment was even registered with NSO and with certification that my marriage was declared absolute nullity. Can i get a marriage lisence at this time for my civil wedding with my fiance?
my husband stayed in other country with another woman who refused to be seperated from him tried to kill herself then recently she came home here in the philippines and is now 7 months pregnant,she is sending me threats and making messages to disturb me even pictures ,is there a case i can file agaisnt her..since she told me that i cant do anything and i saved all her text messages and all the pictures and letters she sentme.can this be enough as evidence?and she wants to go back to where my husband is,can i file a hold departure order also ?where?is NBI can assist me?thanks
I’m planning to file an annulment case against my wife for reason of insanity (extreme jealousy/OTHELLO SYNDROME. I have the pshychological evaluation from a doctor to prove my case. The problem is that I dont want this case to hinder my wifes future plan to migrate to the U.S.A as a nurse. Will this case in any way affect her immigration application? what other option do i have?
Melissa, what exactly is half-Fil, half American?
Leo, yes, habitual alcoholism is a ground for legal separation. Read the related article (in the future, please use search function at the right side bar…the answers might just be in related posts). Or just click here.
blu2luv, I strongly suggest you hire a lawyer. If the properties are here in the Phils., you hire a Filipino lawyer.
Good luck to everyone.
Atty Fred,
Thank you so much for your reply on my March 1st email blog to you. Now I know that after reading all the articles, I am still considered a married woman under Philippines Law since I am a Filipino citizen, and I was the one who filed for a divorce here in US. He remarried there after he got the divorce decree that was mailed to him by my lawyer here in US. After that I was told by his woman that he got a legal capacity from the US embassy to get married, does that mean that his marriage is not valid? “void” after all? if so, it means that whatever property he had accumulated during our 23 years of married life , my adult children are also heirs and I have rights on everything. Sadly, but my husband died in July 2006. The problem is that the other woman he married is trying to claim what she wants and is asking us to accept what she wants to give us as a settlement per her text via cell phone. I am still confuse. Should I get my own lawyer there in the Philippines or here…i know that legal advise is not allowed. I just want a little knowledge on when and where to start if I pursue. thank you again!
Is being an alcoholism a ground for legal separation.
Alcoholism means when he cannot stop drinking until he fall asleep in the chair where he is drinking and he sometimes exhibit maliciously when he is drunk
you have to file a petition here in P.I…