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:
Effect of Annulment in a Criminal Case for Bigamy by Atty. Fred on August 4th, 2006
Psychological Incapacity: Habitual Lying by Atty. Fred on July 22nd, 2006
Guidelines in Psychological Incapacity (Article 36, Family Code) by jlp on July 22nd, 2006
pinksoda5029
I just wanna ask on how much to file an annulment if i do it.my husband and i are separated for morethan 2 yrs he didnt support us and he has lots of girls. i want to get an annulment, i wanna be free from him. hope atty fred can advise me what to do. thanks!
Jim, it’s always disturbing to hear about negative treatment experienced by Filipinos abroad, but there are also bright spots and positive stories. There’s always a balance, and we always hope for the best. Thank you for your concern for a fellow Filipino, er, former Filipino. Anyway, I suggest you read another article in this site, it may help you in your research. Let me know if I could be of help. Good luck. Here’s the article -
https://jlp-law.com/blog/retention-re-acquisition-philippine-citizenship-9225/
Patrick, just file the proper case in court here in the Philippines. It’s relatively simple. Your lawyer will know the procedure.
Collin, I guess you know what court (location, branch) your petition was filed here in the Philippines. You could get the documents from that particular court. (You could help me in praying that the government push harder in expediting its current effort to enable online transactions).
Atty Fred,
I am legally annulled to my husband whom i discovered bigamous. While my annulment was in court and while waiting for the decision of my annulment i file to get passport using my maiden name and i attached copy of on going annulment and bigamy court proceeding on my application for passport.
My annulment was approved in November 2003. I am getting married again here in America and I wanted to get a copy of my annulment from the solicitor general office in Makati. Can i do it on line? If yes, can you tell me how? If not… Can i ask you to please give me the number of the office of the solicitor general in makati so i can talk to any in the solicitor general office and request any of them to email to me a copy of my annulment.
Thank you in advance for the help.
I have a question how do you file the paperwork for a article 26. My fiance was married to a foreigner and he divorced her in his country what does she need to do to file the paperwork in the filipines?
Atty, Fred, thanks for your reply, yes I do still believe it can be fixed and I will keep going until it is one way or another.
The first step will be to fire the current lawyer, my fault for agreeing to use him in the first place as it was pretty clear that he had no expertise in this area but my partner trusted him and I had little experience with your legal system at the time.
Actually there has been a recent development as our petition to the court was put in abeyance until such times as we could prove that my partner definitley did not hold Korean citizenship. My heart sank when I heard that as proving a negative is not that easy
, however my partner has now been to the Korean embassy and low and behold they have her registered as a Korean citizen 
would have been nice if our laywer had been smart enough to check this out a couple of years ago 
So now she is effectivley an illegal alien in the Philippines…
We really need GOOD advice from somewhere. We have already had a petition to the OSG Special Commitee on Naturalization rejected because she was stateless and had explicitly renounced her citizenship, now as a result of the current petition to the court and the courts questions we find out she is Korean, so maybe the repatriation law for women in her position does apply after all, I just don’t know.
It turns out that if we can get her a Korean passport that we would have significantly less trouble getting her into the UK as South Korean citizens do not require a Visa to visit the UK, whereas Filipino citizens require a sponsor and loads of proof from the sponsor that the sponsor can provide a place to live and is financially secure enough to look after the visitor.
Tourist Visa for the UK…? if you are a poor Filipino forget it
I’ve gotten off the plane in Amsterdam before, on my way home, and been horribly embarrased at the way the Filipinos on the flight were treated. Do you know that sometimes they have passport checks at the end of the disembarkation tunnel..? If you are white or from a rich country you sail straight through, if you come from a poor country you get the third degree
I know why they do it but I really don’t like the discrimination.
So back to the point, I need to employ a good lawyer that specializes in this type of work. A short term solution might be for my partner to take up her Korean nationality get a Korean passport and for us to accept that she cannot own property in the Phils and so on and I suppose she would have to get an ACR and report every 59 days to the immigration authorities etc. At least I could get her to the UK, however we have another problem and that is how do we get our 18th month old wee boy James, who is a Filipino, over to the UK as well.
I suppose life would be very very boring if we did not have trials to overcome
Ah well, back to the research
Cheers
Jim
Jim, I’m sorry to hear about your experience, as well as that of your partner. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I sense that you still believe in doing something about your “situation” and that something could still be done to make it right. The Philippine legal system is far from perfect, but I’m confident there are remedies to your predicament. Good luck.
Juliet, my problem is the fact that you said he is Filipino. Anyway, I believe that your question, just like the question of Jane, is addressed in the article.
Juliet/Irene/Jane, I think your concerns are sufficiently addressed in the article. You could also read the related article: “Questions and Answers” (click here).
Sweetest, if you read the other posts, sexual infidelity, by itself, is only a ground for legal separation - not annulment. Perhaps you could discuss with your lawyer, because he/she could ask you questions that may relate to other grounds.
This is the situtation:
Woman A and Man A had a daughter even before they got married. Within their two years of marriage Woman A had an affair with Man B and decided to leave her husband (Man A), and took their daughter. Finally both parties sorted to separate physically. Until now Woman A is still with Man B.
The question is:
Man A wants to file for annulment. What would be the possible grounds for this case?
hi atty. fred! i’m a fil. citizen, got married here in the philippines to a filipino who is an american citizen since birth. after 2 years of marriage he filed for divorce in the US (i am here in the phils). last year, i received a notice of entry of judgement. does this mean the divorce was already granted? if so, is this recognized here in the country since he is an american citizen? or do i have to file for an annulment? i hope you could reply. would greatly appreciate it. thanks so much!
We are both naturalised citizen of uk, my partner is married to a filipino citizen (that’s before his naturalised citizenzhip) and have been separated for 5 years now.Just wondering, now that were both citizens of a different country does it mean that he can remarry here?!