Do not let the law rain on your parade. Take note of the following circumstances enumerated by the 1987 Family Code (Chapter 3) which would make a marriage void or voidable:
- Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even with the consent of parents or guardians;
- 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;
- Those solemnized without license, except those prescribed by the Family Code;
- Those bigamous or polygamous marriages not falling under Art. 41 (see last condition);
- Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the other;
- Those subsequent marriages when one party has not yet completed the annulment of a previous marriage;
- Marriages contracted by any party, who at the time of the celebration, was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations of marriage, even if such incapacity becomes manifest only after its solemnization;
- Between ascendants and descendants of any degree;
- Between brothers and sisters, whether of full or half blood;
- Between collateral blood relatives, whether legitimate or illegitimate, up to the fourth civil degree;
- Between step-parents and step-children;
- Between parents-in-law and children-in-law;
- Between the adopting parent and the adopted child;
- Between the surviving spouse of the adopting parent and the adopted child;
- Between the surviving spouse of the adopted child and the adopter;
- Between an adopted child and a legitimate child of the adopter;
- Between adopted children of the same adopter;
- Between parties where one, with the intention to marry the other, killed that other person’s spouse, or his or her own spouse;
- A marriage contracted by any person during the subsistence of a previous marriage shall be null and void, unless before the celebration of the subsequent marriage, the prior spouse had been absent for four consecutive years and the spouse present had a well-founded belief that the absent spouse was already dead. In case of disappearance where there is danger of death under the circumstances set forth in the provisions of Article 391 of the Civil Code, an absence of two years shall be sufficient
For more information, consult the 1987 Family Code and your lawyer.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Source:
Nolledo, Jose N. “The Family Code of the Philippines.” The Civil Code of the Philippines. 2000 Revised Edition
