Annulment in the Philippines

Under Philippine law a marriage can either be declared null and void or voidable. A void marriage is void from the beginning. However, for purposes of remarriage the law requires that a void marriage should be judicially declared void, otherwise, a subsequent marriage is likewise void. On the other hand, a voidable marriage is valid until annulled.

Petition for Declaration of Nullity of Marriage

To declare a marriage void, the action to file is a Petition for Declaration of Nullity of Marriage.  This is a judicial process wherein the relief is the declaration of a marriage as void from the beginning or inexistent from the time of its performance.

Grounds to declare a marriage void

The following are the grounds to declare a marriage void:

  1. Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even with the consent of their parents or guardians;
  2. Those solemnized by any person not legally authorized to perform marriages unless such marriages were contracted with either or both parties believing in good faith that the solemnizing officer had the legal authority to do so;
  3. Those solemnized without a license unless falling under the exceptions where no marriage license is required;
  4. Those bigamous or polygamous marriages;
  5. Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the other;
  6. Psychological Incapacity of the husband or wife, existing at the time of marriage, which prevents him or her from complying with the essential marital obligations of marriage, even if such incapacity becomes manifest only after the solemnization of the marriage;
  7. Incestuous Marriages (between ascendants and descendants; between brothers and sisters whether full or half blood);
  8. Marriages between relatives:
  • collateral blood relatives, whether legitimate or illegitimate, up to the fourth civil degree;
  • step-parents and step-children;
  • parents-in-law and children-in-law;
  • the adopting parent and the adopted child;
  • the surviving spouse of the adopting parent and the adopted child;
  • the surviving spouse of the adopted child and the adopter;
  • an adopted child and a legitimate child of the adopter;
  • adopted children of the same adopter;
  • between parties where one, with the intention to marry the other, killed the other person’s spouse, or his or her own spouse.

Prescription (time limit) to file a petition to declare my marriage void

There is no prescription or time limit to file a petition to declare a marriage void. Thus, it can be filed at  any time.

Annulment of marriage

Annulment of marriage is  a judicial process wherein the marriage bond is annulled. This means that a   marriage is valid until annulled by a competent court.

Grounds for annulment

The grounds are as follows:

  1. Lack of parental consent. This applies to parties who, being above 18 years and above but below 21 years old, get married without the parental consent;
  2. Insanity of one parties;
  3. The consent of either party was obtained by fraud;
  4. The consent of either party was obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence;
  5. Either party was sexual impotent or physically incapable of engaging in sexual intercourse and such incapacity continues and appears to be incurable;
  6. Either party was afflicted with a sexually-transmissible disease found to be serious and appears to be incurable.

The fraud which constitute the ground for annulment

They are:

  1. Non-disclosure of a previous conviction by final judgment of the other party of a crime involving moral turpitude;
  2. Concealment by the wife of the fact that at the time of the marriage, she was pregnant by a man other than her husband;
  3. Concealment of sexually transmissible disease, regardless of its nature, existing at the time of the marriage; or
  4. Concealment of drug addiction, habitual alcoholism or homosexuality or lesbianism existing at the time of the marriage.

Procedure for declaration of absolute nullity of void marriages and annulment of voidable marriage

The simple steps are as follows:

  1. To engage a counsel of your own choice in order that he/she can assess the existence of applicable grounds to annul your marriage or have it declared void from the beginning;
  1. If the ground is psychological incapacity under Article 36 of the Family Code, the professional services of a clinical psychologist/psychiatrist is needed. This is to determine the existence of certain types of personality disorders (like narcissistic, histrionic, anti-social disorders, etc.) by either or both spouse/s with all its physical manifestations determinative of psychological incapacity to contract marriage;
  1. Once an evaluation report yields the existence of psychological incapacity characterized with juridical antecedence (meaning it existed prior to the marriage and only manifested during the marriage), gravity and incurability (absolute and relative) of either or both spouses then a petition can be prepared and filed in court by your counsel;
  1. With its filing in court, the whole process will begin such as the service of summons to the respondent spouse (and if abroad, the service of summons will have to be effected by publication);
  1. After the period (15 days if summons was served personally and 30 days if served by publication) to file an answer by the respondent husband/wife, your counsel will file a motion asking the court to refer the case to the public prosecutor for purposes of collusion investigation. The court will order the prosecutor to conduct collusion investigation within thirty (30) days from the date of the court’s order. The parties will be subpoenaed by the prosecutor to attend the scheduled collusion investigation. On the basis of the collusion investigation, a collusion investigation report will be prepared and submitted in court by the prosecutor;
  1. Thereafter, a preliminary conference before the branch clerk of court will be set for purposes of marking of exhibits, determining issues, stipulations of facts, dates of hearings and witnesses to be presented. Other family courts do not require preliminary conference before the branch clerk;
  2. Then pre-trial for purposes of marking of exhibits, determining issues, stipulations of facts, dates of hearings and witnesses to be presented and trial proper. If a preliminary conference was conducted the proceedings/minutes thereof can be adopted as part of the pre-trial. During the trial, petitioner and respondent (if contested) will present their respective pieces of evidence, testimonial and documentary. The they will file their respective formal offer of evidence upon termination of the presentation of their evidence. The court will issue an order on the admission of the evidence formally offered. If it is not contested, it is for the petitioner to move during the hearing set for the presentation of respondent’s evidence that despite notice respondent have failed to appear therefore he/she is deemed to have waived his/her right to present evidence and the case to be submitted for decision;
  1. After evaluating the evidence on record, the court will issue a decision.

Petition for absolute nullity of void marriage

The petition could be filed solely by the husband or the wife.

Venue of the petition for declaration of nullity or annulment

Filed before the family court located at the place of petitioner’s residence or that of respondent’s residence, where either of the petitioner and respondent have been residing for at least six months prior to the filing of the petition or in case of a non-resident respondent spouse, where he/she may be found in the Philippines, at the election of the petitioner spouse.

Verifying/checking the existence of marriage

Secure the copy of your marriage contract before the National Statistics Office (NSO), the Civil Registrar General. If you are not certain whether a particular person got  married or not you can secure the certificate of no marriage (CENOMAR) of that person to the National Statistics Office (NSO) and from the CENOMAR you can see all the marriages contracted by that person.

Filing a petition for declaration of nullity of marriage/annulment of marriage even out of the country

This can be done as it is not prohibited by law and existing rules. But the petitioner will have to appear in court to testify.  However, a motion for the early taking of petitioner’s testimony or deposition can be filed in court so that petitioner can testify and attend on the scheduled hearing. In that way, the petitioner’s attendance to testify in court can be scheduled. But it is up to the court to grant or deny the said motion.

Proceeding with the petition if a spouse is outside the country or cannot be found in the Philippines

In that case, the summons will have to be served to the spouse by publication. The summons will be published once a week for two (2) consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation. In addition, a copy of the summons shall be served to the respondent spouse at the last known address by registered mail or by any other means which the court may deem sufficient. The presence of the respondent spouse is not necessary  for the proceedings to continue. What is important is that service of summons was already effected by publication to the respondent spouse.

Psychological incapacity as a ground to declare the marriage void

This is provided under Article 36 of the Family Code. The case of Santos versus Court of Appeals decided sometime in January 4,1995 specifically defined psychological incapacity as referring to no less than a mental (not physical) incapacity that causes a party to be truly incognitive of the basic martial covenants that concomitantly must be assumed and discharged by the parties to the marriage which, xxx, include their mutual obligations to live together, observe love, respect and fidelity, and render help and support. Psychological incapacity must be characterized by (a) gravity, (b) juridical antecedence, and (c) incurability.”

Manifestations of psychological incapacity

Types of Disorders   According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3d ed., rev., 1987), or DSM-III-R, personality disorders are categorized into three major clusters:

Cluster A:  Paranoid, schizoid and schizotypal personality disorders. Individuals who have these disorders often appear to have odd or eccentric habits and traits.

Cluster B:  Antisocial, borderline, histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders.  Individuals who have these disorders often appear overly emotional, erratic and dramatic.

Cluster C:  Avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive and passive-aggressive personality disorders.  Individuals who have these disorders often appear anxious or fearful.

The DSM-III-R also lists another category, “personality disorder not otherwise specified,” that can be used for other specific personality disorders or for mixed conditions that do not qualify as any of the specific personality disorders.

Proving psychological incapacity of the spouse       

The petitioner spouse, with his/her corroborative witness, should submit to a psychological evaluation by a clinical psychologist or psychiatrist to determine clinically the existence of psychological incapacity of either or both spouse/s. In simple terms, you can prove it by submitting yourself for psychological evaluation. It is important to be truthful with the information you will disclose. A report will be prepared/issued by the clinical psychologist, which could yield the psychological incapacity of either or both spouses on the basis of the information given by the petitioner and his/her corroborative witness.