The Family Code of the Philippines
Must be Male and Female
MARRIAGE
Chapter 1 – Requisites of Marriage
Marriage
-is a special contract of permanent union between a man and
a women entered into in accordance with the law from the
establishment of conjugal and family life.
-Man and women enter a joint life acting and living and
working as one. Whether under common law or under the civil
law, upon marriage, the couple become one single moral,
spiritual and social being.
Chapter 2 – No marriage shall be void unless three
essential requisites are present:
Essential requisites:
1. Legal Capacity of the contracting parties who must be
male and female.
-Legal capacity: 18 years old and above.
If any parties are below 18, marriage is void even if
consent is given or has been obtained.
-Contracting parties must not be related to each other.
-An already married person cannot marry another one unless
previous marriage has been nullified, annulled, or falls under
valid bigamous marriage.
2.
-Marriage is founded in the distinction of sex.
-The law likewise provides that the contracting parties must be
a male and a female.
3. Consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing
officer.
-consent must be given in the presence of a solemnizing
officer
-No particular form is required
-capable of understanding the consequences of the act.
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 3- Formal requisites:
1. Authority of the Solemnizing officer
-It must be observed that it is not the presence or absence of
the solemnizing officer which constitutes the formal
requirement but is the absence or presence of the authority of
such solemnizing officer.
It is not the duty of the solemnizing officer to know
whether a marriage license has been issued by the
local civil registrar. All he needs to know is that the
license has been issued by a competent official.
2. Valid marriage license except in the cases provided for
Chapter 2

-A valid marriage license must be issued by the local civil
registrar of the place where the marriage application was
filed.
-Has a lifetime of 120 days from the date of issue and is
effective in any part of the Philippines. It shall be deemed
cancelled at the expiration of the 120 days.
-A name spelled wrong will not invalidate the marriage.
3. A marriage ceremony which takes place with the
appearance of the contracting parties before the
solemnizing officer and their personal declaration that
they take each other as husband and wife in the
presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age.
Under Paragraph 3.
1. Marriage Ceremony:
-Minimum requirement is that contracting parties appear
personally before the solemnizing officers with 2 witnesses
of legal age.
-Declaration of consent must not be vocally expressed. It
can be shown by signs of manifestation.
NOTE: While the law provides that the declaration of consent
must be contained in the marriage certificate, the marriage
certificate itself is not an essential requirement nor formal
requirement of marriage.
Failure to sign a marriage certificate will not render the
marriage void or annullable.
2. Witnesses in a Marriage Ceremony:
-There must be 2 witnesses of legal age in attendance.
-Absence of witnesses is merely an irregularity which will
not render a marriage void.
Chapter 4 – Absence, Defect, Irregularity in Essential
and Formal Requirements
1. Absence of essential and formal requisites
-Generally, absence of any of the essential or formal
requirements of a marriage renders such marriage null and
void.
Exceptions:
1. Marriages except from the Marriage License
requirement:
-Marriage in Articulo Mortis
-Marriages of 2 contracting parties living in places
where there are no means of transportation to enable
them to appear personally before the local civil
registrar.
-Marriages among Muslims and other ethnic cultural
minorities performed in accordance with their practices
-Marriages if couples without any impediments to get
 married living together as husband and wife for at least
5 years.

2. Another exception is a marriage solemnized by a

person without the authority to solemnize a marriage
provided that either one of the parties believed in good
faith that such solemnizing office had proper authority.

3. Defects in the essential requirements of marriage

makes the marriage merely annullable or violable.
Specifically those enumerated in 45 and 46

4. Irregularities in the formal requisites do no affect the

validity of the marriage.

Examples if irregularities:
-Absence of two witnesses of legal ages during the
marriage ceremony
-