Course Description Persons and Family Relations is a (4) four unit course and a bar subject.

It
covers the preliminary titles of the Civil Code, the Family Code as well as supplementary laws
on marriage, children and the family. This course syllabus integrates components of the
UNIFEM-LEGIS CURRENTS Project, which incorporates a framework and discussions of
Women’s Human Rights.
Main References A. Tolentino, Civil Code of the Philippines-Commentaries and Jurisprudence
A. Sempio-Dy, Handbook on the Family Code of the Philippines (Cases and Comments) New
Civil Code of the Philippines (NCC), Articles 1-51; Articles 254-257; 305-310; 356-396; 407-
413 (Republic Act No. 386) Family Code of the Philippines (FC) (Executive Order 209)
Supplementary Materials
Marriage Law (Act 3613) Civil Registry Law (Act No. 3753)
Inter-Country Adoption Act of 1995 (Republic Act No.8043)
Domestic Adoption Act of 1998 (Republic Act No.8552)
Philippine Passport Act (Republic Act 8239)
Child Youth and Welfare Code (P.D. 603)
Code of Muslim Personal Laws (P.D. 1083)
Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)
Structure
Part 1: Course Overview and Introduction to the Civil Code and Preliminary Title
Part 2: Introduction to the Family Code
Part 3: General Provisions: Persons, Civil Personality & Citizenship and Domicile
Part 4: Marriage, Formal and Essential Requisites
Part 5: Rights & Obligations Between Husbands & Wives
Part 6: Void & Voidable Marriages and Legal Separation
Overview
Part 1: Course Overview and Introduction to the Civil Code and Preliminary Title
(1) The Concept of Civil Law, Influences of Philippine Civil Law
(2) The Effect and Application of Laws (Art. 1-18, NCC)
(3) Human Relations (Art.19-36, NCC)

1
Part 2: Introduction to the Family Code
(4) Laws on the Family and Marriage & the concept of “Family”
(5) Women’s Status and Equality in Marriage and the Family : CEDAW, Art.16
Part 3: Persons, Civil Personality & Citizenship and Domicile
(6) Persons, Civil Personality, Natural & Juridical Persons
(7) Citizenship & Domicile Part 4: Marriage, Formal and Essential Requisites
(8) Marriage, Definition
(9) Requisites of Marriage : Formal and Essential Requisites
(10)Valid Marriage License; Valid Marriage Ceremony
Part 5: Rights & Obligations between Husbands & Wives
(11) Obligations between the Husband and Wife
(12) The Family Home & Property Relations (a) Marriage Settlements, Donations (b) Absolute
Community & Conjugal Partnership (c) Separation of Property and Property Relations of Unions
without Marriage (d) The Family Home
Part 6: Void & Voidable Marriages and Legal Separation
(13) Lack of Essential and Formal Requisites
(14) Psychological Incapacity
(15) Incestuous Marriages and Marriages Void for reasons of Public Policy; Presumptive Death
(16) Deficiency in Consent; Prohibition on Collusion
(17) Legal Separation
Part 7: The Family/Family Relations; Support, Parental Authority, Emancipation and Age of
Majority
(18) The Family & Family Relations
(19) Support, Definition, Who are Entitled to Support
(20) Amount, Liability, How to Fulfil; Non-Levy of Support
(21) Support Pendente Lite; Reimbursement and Contractual Support
(22) Parental Authority, Definition and Character of Responsibility; Rights and Duties
(23) Civil Liability for Damages ; Child’s Property
(24) Loss of Parental Authority and Substitute Parental Authority; Disciplinary Measures
(25) Emancipation

2
Part 8: Paternity and Filiation, Adoption, Summary & Judicial Provisions
(26) Concept of Legitimacy: Legitimated Children; Extension of Legitimacy by Legal Fiction
and Adopted Children
(27) Action to Claim Legitimacy
(28) Adoption
(29) Summary Judicial Proceedings
Part 9: Review of Key Provisions /Integration

3
Persons and family relations is one of the subjects covered in civil law in the Philippine Bar
Examinations.
Persons and family relations mainly deals with the issues of family matters such as marriage,
annulment and voiding of marriages, adoption, property settlements between spouses, parental
authority, support for spouses and children, emancipation, legitimes (inheritance) of children
from their parents and between relatives. [1]
Some of the most important coverage of this subjects is the Family Code of the Philippines, or
Executive Order 209, which was enacted by former president Corazon Aquino on July 6, 1987
(taking effectivity one year later after the completion of its official publication). The main reason
for enacting this code was to replace the first book of the Civil Code of the Philippines which
covers relations between persons, and family. [2]
Marriage
Based on the Family Code, a valid marriage requires certain essential and formal requisites.
Essential requisites to marriage include legal capacity to marry and consent. Formal requisites
include a valid marriage license, authority of solemnizing officer and a marriage ceremony
where the contracting parties personally appear before the solemnizing officer and declare that
they take each other as husband and wife in the presence of two witnesses of legal age.
Absence of any of the essential and formal requisites renders a marriage void ab initio (from the
beginning), except in cases such as contracting parties in good faith believed that the
solemnizing officer (who had no authority to solemnize the marriage) had the authority to
solemnize marriage. Thus a marriage between minors or to a minor is void. Similarly, a marriage
without a valid marriage license (except in certain circumstances) is void.
A defect in the essential requisites renders the marriage voidable and thus can be subject to
annulment. Irregularities in the formal requisites does not affect the validity of the marriage but
renders the parties responsible for such irregularities to be civilly, criminally or administratively
liable.
However, there are cases where some of the formal requisites are not required, which usually
happens in exceptional circumstances. An example is when the parties contracting marriage are
living in a remote area inaccessible to any viable means of transport, such that it renders
impossible the acquisition of a marriage license. In such cases, a valid marriage license may not
be required. The same is also true for ethnic marriages which can forgo the need for a valid
marriage license, provided they conform to the customs for such ethnic marriages.
Annulment
A marriage can be annulled if there is a defect in the essential requisites. Consent obtained
through fraud, deceit or violence, for example, can annul the marriage. Similarly, an individual
below 21 years old who contracts to marry but does not obtain parental consent can also have
their marriage annulled within the prescribed period.

4
The Civil Code of the Philippines is the product of the codification of private law in
the Philippines. It is the general law that governs family and property relations in the Philippines.
It was enacted in 1950, and remains in force to date despite some significantamendments.
History
The Philippine Civil Code is strongly influenced by the Spanish Código Civil, which was first
enforced in 1889 within the Philippines, then a colony of the Spanish Empire. The Código
Civil remained in effect even throughout the American Occupation, however by 1940
the Commonwealth Government of President Manuel Luis Quezon formed a Commission tasked
with drafting a new Civil Code. The Commission was initially headed by Chief Justice Ramón
Avanceña, but its work was interrupted by the Japanese invasion and the Second World War,
while its records were destroyed during the Battle of Manila in 1945.
In 1947, President Manuel Acuña Roxas of the Third Republic created a new Code Commission,
this time headed by the formerDean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, Jorge
Bocobo. Among the members of this new Commission were futureSupreme Court Associate
Justice Francisco R. Capistrano, and future Vice-President Arturo Tolentino. The Code
Commission completed the final draft of the new Civil Code by December 1947, and this was
submitted to Congress, which enacted it into law through Republic Act No. 386. The Civil Code
took effect in 1950.[1]
Due to its wide coverage and impact, the Civil Code is the subject of much study and extensive
commentary. Several legal luminaries developed reputations as experts on the Civil Code and
consequently enhanced their reputations in the field of Philippine law. These include Tolentino,
who himself had helped draft it, Supreme Court Associate Justices J. B. L. Reyes, Flérida Ruth
P. Romero, José Vitug, and Edgardo Paras.
Features
The Civil Code is divided into four “books”, with each specific book namely:
Book I : Persons and Family relations
 Persons
 Marriage and Legal Separation
 Family relations
Book II - Property and Property rights
 Classes of Property
 Possession
Book III: Ownership
 Servitude
 Modes of Acquiring ownership
 Succession

5
Book IV : Obligations and Contracts
 Obligations
 Contracts
Special contracts encompasses several classes of contracts
as trusts, sales, barter, lease, loan, deposit, Aleatory
contracts, Compromises, Guaranty agency, pledges,mortgage, antichresis, quasi-contract, quasi-
delict and partnership
Book V :torts and damages
(although developments in tort and damages law have been guided less by the Code than by
judicial precedents.)
The influence of the Spanish Civil Code is most evident in the books on property, succession
and obligations and contracts. The law on succession, for example, retains such concepts
indigenous to Spain such as the rule on legitimes and reserva troncal. On the other hand, many of
the provisions on special contracts, particularly on sales, are derived from common law as
practised in the United States, reflecting the influence of American colonial rule and the influx of
commercial relations involving Americans at the time.
The great mass of disputes between private persons over civil and property relations are resolved
by applying the provisions of the Civil Code. With over 2,000 specific provisions, the Civil Code
attempts to anticipate all possible questions arising from civil and property relations and
prescribe a definitive solution for these problems. Understandably, the Civil Code itself is unable
to provide a definite answer for all emerging problems; thus the courts also rely
on precedent based on interpretations by theSupreme Court. This the Civil Code itself notably
recognises in saying that "[j]udicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the
Constitution shall form a part of the legal system of the Philippines" (Article 8, Civil Code), a
recognition of the eminent role now played by precedents in Philippine law.
The Family Code of 1987
In 1987, President Corazón Cojuangco Aquino enacted into law The Family Code of 1987,
which was intended to supplant Book I of the Civil Code concerning persons and family
relations. Work on the Family Code had begun as early as 1979, and it had been drafted by two
successive committees, the first chaired by future Supreme Court Justice Romero, and the second
chaired by former Supreme Court Justice Reyes. The Civil Code needed amendment via the
Family Code in order to alter certain provisions derived from foreign sources which had proven
unsuitable to Filipino culture and to attune it to contemporary developments and trends.[2]
The Family Code covers fields of significant public interest, especially the laws on marriage. The
definition and requisites for marriage, along with the grounds for annulment, are found in the
Family Code, as is the law on conjugal property relations, rules on establishing filiation, and the
governing provisions on support, parental authority, and adoption.