Spouses A & B got married in the Phils. Both of them migrated to USA.

Later on, they got divorced in

the US Recently, per PSA CENOMAR - they are still married.a

If they are still both Filipino Citizens while getting their divorced in the US, their marriage remains valid
and existing in the Philippines.

If either of them obtained US citizenship and then filed for a divorce thereafter, their divorce shall be
acknowledged in the Philippines, provided that either spouse will file for a petition of the judicial
recognition of their divorce from his/her former spouse.

They will still need to register the court decision recognizing their foreign divorce with the Philippine
Statistics Authority before the marriage record will reflect the divorce. This results in an Advisory on
Marriage which notes the divorce and allows them to remarry. This process can itself take months.

As to property relations of spouses, we should determine first whether or not they executed prenuptial
agreement. If none and their marriage occurred before August 3, 1988, their property relations is
Conjugal Partnership of Gains (CPG) by default. If their marriage occurred after August 3, 1998 and they
did not execute a prenuptial agreement, then their property relations will be governed by Absolute
Community of Property (ACP).

The spouses may have agreed for Separation of Properties as one of the possibilities.

Both CPG and ACP dissolves upon termination of marriage (Art 129 of the Civil Code). And the law
expressly provides that upon dissolution:

1. inventory shall be prepared, listing separately all the properties of the conjugal partnership and
the exclusive properties of each spouse.

2. Amounts advanced by the conjugal partnership in payment of personal debts and obligations of
either spouse shall be credited to the conjugal partnership as an asset thereof.

3. The debts and obligations of the conjugal partnership shall also be paid out of the conjugal
assets. 

4. Whatever remains of the exclusive properties of the spouses shall thereafter be delivered to
each of them.

This is a mandatory procedure provided by law in order to avoid prejudice to the spouse’s creditors, and
to ensure fair division among them and to their heirs.

Risk on the bank if the property is accepted, as bank may lose the right to foreclose it in the future
because in the inception of the contract, the borrower-mortgagor already lacked the full authority to
encumber the property without the consent of the other spouse.
What are the docs required if one of the spouses will offer the property as loan collateral?

They have to present proof that he/she already owns the property exclusively as there must be a
partition of their properties before they can use any of it as collateral. Upon termination or marriage,
partition is really required by law to secure the legitime of their children, and to pay for the conjugal
debts of the spouses, including their individual debts. Their conjugal property is liable for all of it. Hence,
before they can alienate anything, they need to undergo partition of property.

What docs to be executed if they will transfer the property in the name of their legal age child?

Partition of their property is the very document and process they need to undergo if they would like to
transfer any of their co-owned property to their children as divorced individuals. This cannot be made
under a donation anymore as husband and wife because they have already terminated their marriage,
hence, also terminated their property relations which thus requires partition, for the property to be
fairly and be properly distributed to their heirs and creditors.

If one of the spouses will not allow/ cooperate with the said transfer of property, is there a legal
remedy for this?

If partition is already made, no cooperation is needed to transfer the property they wish to used as
collateral since either of them already owns it exclusively. But if no partition is made yet, then the bank
is at risk in cases of foreclosure or dacion since in the first place of the transaction, the bank do not have
the right to transfer it, being the property owned by the spouses, which thus requires both of their
consent to be transferred.

Best thing to do is to make sure first that their properties have undergone partition and that the
property being offered as collateral is an exclusively owned property by the borroweR-mortgagor.