G04 Law

A1109, Taft Ave. Malate, Manila

Date: 2/18/2016
To: Caroline Tejano
From:
Subject: Proving Filiation of Giselle Evangelista for Purposes of taking her
to USA
Good day!
You have asked for advice on what your options are to prove Giselle
Evangelista’s filiation to your late husband, Teddy Tejano, for purposes of
derivative citizenship and taking her with you to USA.
Issues and Answers
1. Can you prove Giselle Evangelista’s filiation to your late husband? Yes.
2. Do you have another option in getting a government-issued document
stating Giselle Evangelista is your late husband’s daughter? Yes.
3. Can you bring Giselle Evangelista with you to the US? Yes.
Facts and Discussion
The relevant facts I have gathered from your narration are the
following:
1. You were married to Teddy Tejano who is now deceased.
2. You are a permanent resident in the USA, and your late husband was a
naturalized US citizen.
3. Your late husband went to the Philippines for a vacation from
November 2013 to February 2014.
4. During this period, your late husband impregnated a woman by the
name of Maria Evangelista, a widow. You were later informed of this
incident.
5. Your late husband has been in constant communication with Maria
during her pregnancy and before his death. He was also sending
financial support to Maria and you have the receipts of the remittances.
6. You had Giselle DNA tested using DNA samples from Teddy’s
Brother, Arthur, and Teddy’s daughter from a former marriage, Emma.
The results were there is a high probability that Giselle is related to
Arthur and Emma, an indication of uncle-niece and half-sisters’
relationship respectively.
7. You are now in good terms with Maria, and you now want to adopt the
child, Giselle. Maria is willing to give up Giselle for adoption.
8. You hired a US adoption lawyer and this lawyer informed you that you
need a government-issued document stating that Giselle is a natural
child of Teddy so you can apply the US law on derivative citizenship.
From these set of facts, you should, in my opinion, ask Ms. Maria Evangelista
to file an action1 to claim illegitimacy in behalf of her daughter, Giselle
Evangelista.
As the person who is exercising parental authority over Giselle, Maria should
file this action in behalf of her infant child. We should advise Maria to present
her late husband’s death certificate to establish that she is the only one who
exercises parental authority over Giselle.
To prove that Giselle is indeed the daughter of Teddy, we should assist
Maria and present Teddy’s death certificate at the outset to establish his death.
This will inform the court of the fact of Teddy’s death and will be given the
opportunity to inform Teddy’s heir to oppose the action, should they want to.
Further, this will also establish why you were not able to use Teddy’s own
DNA for purposes of the DNA test.
We should give Maria the receipts of the remittance and also the results
of the DNA test.2 With the receipts of remittance, we could at least attempt to
prove that by giving prenatal support, Teddy recognized the child as his. Also,
by following the Rules on DNA evidence, we could use the DNA test results
to establish that Giselle is related by blood to Teddy’s 1 st and 2nd degree
relatives by consanguinity.
As an alternative, we can ask and assist Maria to file for Correction of
Entries in the Civil Registry. In that proceeding, Maria can ask the court to
correct the entries in Giselle’s birth certificate and indicate therein that Teddy
is Giselle’s father. We can present the same documentary and circumstantial
evidence in that proceeding. In my understanding, none of the relatives of
Teddy nor of Maria is against what you are planning to do so I think there will
be no opposition and hopefully, the Civil registrar itself will not oppose.
If Maria will be successful in proving Giselle’s filiation or changing the
entries in Giselle’s birth certificate, you can now use the decision of the court
or the corrected birth certificate as the government-issued certificate declaring

1
Article 173 and Article 175 of E.O. 209-87, The Family Code of the Philippines read:
Art. 173. The action to claim legitimacy may be brought by the child during his or her lifetime and shall be transmitted to
the heirs should the child die during minority or in a state of insanity. In these cases, the heirs shall have a period of five
years within which to institute the action.

Art. 175. Illegitimate children may establish their illegitimate filiation in the same way and on the same evidence as
legitimate children.

The action must be brought within the same period specified in Article 173, except when the action is based on the second
paragraph of Article 172, in which case the action may be brought during the lifetime of the alleged parent. (289a)

2
Article 172 of E.O. 209-87, The Family Code of the Philippines read:

Art. 172. The filiation of legitimate children is established by any of the following: xxx

In the absence of the foregoing evidence, the legitimate filiation shall be proved by:

(1) The open and continuous possession of the status of a legitimate child; or

(2) Any other means allowed by the Rules of Court and special laws. (265a, 266a, 267a)
Giselle is Teddy’s daughter, and thus a US citizen by the rules on derivative
citizenship. The US adoption lawyer is more knowledgeable on this matter
and I advise that you refer to him.
If you, with the assistance of your US adoption lawyer, are able to
acquire a US passport for Giselle after all the process above, you will not have
any trouble in bringing Giselle to USA yourself because minors who are
holders of foreign passports will no longer need DSWD Travel clearance to
leave the country. However, to be on the safe side, you should apply for the
DSWD Travel clearance.
For now, it is highly recommended that you coordinate with Maria to
gather all the documents you need in filing the action for Giselle’s illegitimate
filiation to Teddy. Feel free to contact me if you have any other inquiries.

Sincerely,