TITLE

MARIA APIAG, TERESITA CANTERO SECUROM and GLICERIO CANTERO, complainants, vs. JUDGE
ESMERALDO G. CANTERO, respondent.
A.M. No. MTJ-95-1070 February 12, 1997
THIRD DIVISION

FACTS
Maria Apiag and Judge Esmeraldo Cantero got married in August 1947. They had a daughter (Teresita) a
son (Glicerio) whom Maria Apiag raised alone after Judge Cantero abandoned them. When sometime
Judge Cantero went to Southern Leyte, Maria Apiag asked for support, but he ignored them. They also
sent him a letter thru an attorney asking support and that they be properly instituted and named as
compulsory heirs and legal beneficiaries in all legal documents but the judge also ignored the letter.
Then later they learned that Judge Cantero had another family with Nieves C. Ygay and had 5 children.

Judge Cantero in his reply said that the marriage with Maria Apiag was only to please their parents who
planned the marriage without him knowing to save the family name and shame after she and Maria
Apiag had a child out of wedlock but they did not live together as husband and wife even for a day. He
also mentioned that the complaint is suspicious and intriguing considering that it only surfaced when he
is already retiring from 32 years of government service. He also argued that he did not file for
annulment of the marriage because it is his honest belief that it was void from the beginning.

ISSUE
Whether the marriage Nieves Ygay is void due to prior marriage which Judge Cantero claims is
void ab initio.
RULING
Per recent jurisprudence and per Article 4022 of the Family Code, “a marriage though void still
needs a judicial declaration of such fact" before any party thereto "can marry again; otherwise,
the second marriage will also be void." The marriage of Judge Cantero to Nieves Ygay took place
and all their children were born before the effectivity of the Family Code. Hence, the doctrine
that applies is, for marriage that is void ab initio under Article 80 [4] of the New Civil Code, no
judicial decree is necessary to establish the invalidity of void marriages."