Legal Resource · EO 209

Family Code

Executive Order No. 209 sets the framework for nearly every family law dispute in the Philippines, from the validity of a marriage to the custody of a child.

The Family Code of the Philippines

The governing law on marriage, property relations between spouses, legal separation, nullity and annulment, paternity and filiation, support, parental authority, and adoption.

Marriage and its dissolution

Essential and formal requisites of marriage; absence of a requisite renders the marriage void.
Void marriages — including psychological incapacity under Article 36, bigamous marriages, and marriages without a licence.
Voidable marriages — subject to annulment on grounds such as lack of parental consent, fraud, force, or impotence.
Legal separation — allowed on grounds such as repeated violence, drug addiction, abandonment, or infidelity, but the marriage bond remains.

Property relations

Absolute community of property is the default regime for marriages after 3 August 1988 absent a marriage settlement.
Conjugal partnership of gains applies to earlier marriages or where stipulated.
Complete separation of property may be agreed upon in a prenuptial agreement or decreed judicially.
Liquidation of the property regime follows nullity, annulment, or legal separation.

Children and support

Legitimacy, illegitimacy, and the proof of filiation.
Parental authority and custody, with the tender-age presumption favouring the mother for children under seven.
Support comprises everything indispensable for sustenance, dwelling, clothing, medical attendance, education, and transportation.
The family home is generally exempt from execution, forced sale, or attachment.

Penalties and consequences

What is at stake.

The Family Code is largely civil in character; violations are enforced through civil actions and court decrees.
Related criminal liability may arise under the Revised Penal Code (bigamy, concubinage, adultery) or RA 9262 (economic abuse for refusal to support).

How I can help

Counsel on Family Code matters.

I handle petitions for declaration of nullity and annulment, legal separation, recognition of foreign divorce, custody and support actions, and the liquidation and partition of marital property.

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This page is general information about Philippine law and does not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship.

Related laws

RA 9262