Republic of the Philippines

11th Judicial Region

REGIONAL TRIAL COURT
Branch __
DAVAO CITY

IN RE: SUMMARY PETITION FOR Special Proceeding Case

DECLARATION OF PRESUMPTIVE No.____________________
DEATH OF JOHN DOE FOR
PURPOSES OF REMARRIAGE
UNDER ARTICLE 41 OF THE
FAMILY CODE,

JANE DEER DOE,

Petitioner.
PETITION

COMES NOW, the PETITIONER through the undersigned

counsel, unto the Honorable Court, most respectfully alleges: THAT,

1. The PETITIONER is of legal age, married, Filipino citizen and

residing at Davao City, Philippines.

2. The PETITIONER may be served with summons and other

processes of this Honorable Court through her counsel and may
be served with all court processes through the undersigned
counsel at the address hereinafter indicated:

RIZAL, BONIFACIO, STATUE LAW OFFICES

Quirino Ave., Davao City, Philippines;

3. RESPONDENT JOHN DOE’S last known address is at

Dacoville Subdivision, Dumoy, Talomo District, Davao City;

4. Prior to 2003, PETITIONER works in Japan. She applies for

tourist visa every year through the invitation of her brother.

PETITIONER then works for one year, the duration of her tourist
visa. After the expiration of her tourist visa, she goes home to the
Philippines and then reapplies for her tourist visa again in order
to work the next year;
5. Sometime in January 2003, while in the Philippines, a friend of
the PETITIONER told her that if she wanted to become a
permanent resident of Japan, she should marry a Japanese
descendant so that they could apply for residency in Japan;

6. PETITIONER was then interested to such proposal. Upon

further inquiry by PETITIONER with her friend, the latter told
the former that she should go to JING JING DOE (JING for
brevity) at the latter’s house in Dacoville Subdivision, Dumoy,
Talomo District, Davao City;

7. Upon their first meeting, JING told the PETITIONER that the
DOES’s were Japanese descendants and that she can have the
PETITIONER marry one of her relatives (RESPONDENT), who
was living with JING that time, for a certain fee so that the
PETITIONER can apply for and become a Japanese Citizen.
PETITIONER then agreed with JING for the “marriage for
convenience” scheme;

8. On February 3, 2003, PETITIONER paid SEVENTY

THOUSAND PESOS (70,000) to Pillarin, and at the same time,
PETITIONER was made to sign a Marriage Contract by JING;

9. Sometime in March of 2003, PETITIONER had to leave for

Japan because her tourist visa had already been approved and
her work contract was about to start. PETITIONER then left for
Japan using her current passport using her maiden name
“DEER”;

10. During the time that PETITIONER was working in Japan, she
did not have any contact or communication with the
RESPONDENT whatsoever;

11. Sometime in 2004, PETITIONER’S tourist visa expired and her

work contract ended, so she went home to the Philippines. After
she arrived in Davao, she immediately went to Dacoville
Subdivision, Talomo District, Davao City to the house of JING to
follow-up with the RESPONDENT regarding their marriage
certificate so that PETITIONER can start the processing of the
Japanese Citizenship application of PETITIONER and
RESPONDENT;
12.Upon arriving at the said address, PETITIONER inquired from
the residents living there as to where RESPONDENT was.
However, the residents told her that RESPONDENT did not live
there anymore;

13. Hence, PETITIONER inquired as to the whereabouts of JING.

However, the residents were very tight-lipped and just told the
PETITIONER that JING also did not live there anymore and that
they had no idea as to her whereabouts.

14.PETITIONER then just went home after getting no clear answer

as to the whereabouts of the RESPONDENT;

15. Sometime in 2005, PETITIONER again went back to the house

of JING to again follow up with the RESPONDENT regarding the
marriage certificate so that PETITIONER can start the
processing of their Japanese Citizenship application. However,
she still hit a dead end because the residents at the house of JING
when inquired upon, just say that the RESPONDENT nor JING
did not live at the said house anymore;

16.Hence, PETITIONER just let the matter go and forgot about it.
PETITIONER just continued to work in Japan;

17. Sometime in 2008, PETITIONER, on a whim, thought about

getting a Certificate of No Marriage just to see what the result
would be. Hence, the latter procured with the Philippine
Statistics Authority a copy of Certificate of No Marriage;

18. To her surprise, the Certificate of No Marriage procured by

PETITIONER showed that she was indeed married to
RESPONDENT JOHN DOE. This came as a shock to her because
all along, she believed that she RESPONDENT did not process
their marriage license. A copy of the Certificate of Marriage is
hereto attached as ANNEX “A” to form an integral part thereto;

19.PETITIONER thereafter, went to the house of JING to track

down the RESPONDENT. Upon arriving however, she was met
by the new owners of the house and upon inquiry, the new
owners told PETITIONER that they do not know where the
 RESPONDENT or JING’S family transferred or their
whereabouts;

20. Because of always hitting a dead end in looking for the

RESPONDENT at the house of JING at Dacoville Subdivision,
Dumoy, Talomo District, PETITIONER instead decided to
directly look for the RESPONDENT;

21.PETITIONER had a hard time in getting a lead as to the

whereabouts of the RESPONDENT because her only lead was at
Dacoville Subdivision, Dumoy, Talomo District;

22. So PETITIONER then got hold of a copy of the birth certificate

of the RESPONDENT from the Philippine Statistics Authority to
try to see any possible addresses for the RESPONDENT. A copy
of the birth certificate of the RESPONDENT is hereto attached
as ANNEX “B” to form an integral part hereof;

23. After getting hold of the birth certificate, PETITIONER saw that
RESPONDENT was born at their home at R. Castillo, Agdao
thus this prompted Petitioner to scour the whole of Agdao
District to find the RESPONDENT. However, the Petitioner
failed to get a single information regarding the whereabouts of
the latter;

24. Year after year thereafter, when PETITIONER was in the

Philippines, she would always dedicate her time in finding the
whereabouts of the RESPONDENT;

25. PETITIONER even enlisted the help of her close friend Alan
Bingo (Bingo for brevity) in looking for the RESPONDENT
when the former got hold of information sometime in 2009, that
the latter was in Digos City or sometime in 2013 that the
RESPONDENT was in Malita;

26. However, the RESPONDENT was nowhere to be found. A copy

of the affidavit of witness of Alan Bingo is hereto attached as
ANNEX “C” to form an integral part hereof;

27. PETITIONER even enlisted the help of her niece Jackie Paper
(Paper for brevity) in looking for the RESPONDENT but the
results would be the same, that the RESPONDENT is nowhere
 to be found. A copy of the affidavit of witness of Jackie Paper is
hereto attached as ANNEX “D” to form an integral part hereof;

28. Paper even went to the different barangays of Agdao District

including Barangay Dumoy to inquire with them if they have any
JOHN DOE living in their jurisdiction;

29. However, all inquiry led to a dead end because there is no JOHN
DOE living in their jurisdiction;

30. All the barangays of Agdao district and the barangay of Dumoy
even issued certifications attesting to such fact that there is no
JOHN DOE living in their jurisdiction. A Copy of the barangay
certifications are hereto attached as ANNEXES “D” to “D-6”;

31. Meanwhile, if the PETITIONER will get a hold of an

information, no matter how remote of a possibility, regarding
the possible whereabouts of the RESPONDENT, she will
immediately scour such areas;

32. PETITIONER scoured almost all parts of Davao City based on

the information that she gets a hold of. PETITIONER has even
scoured Tagum City just to verify the information that she
received. Despite such efforts, the Respondent was nowhere to
be found;

33. Sometime in November 2018, PETITIONER while inquiring

from Barangay Dumoy if RESPONDENT JOHN DOE was
included in their list of residents, one of the barangay workers
informed the former that a Shiroma was living at DLF Village in
Dumoy, Talomo District;

34. Hence PETITIONER immediately went to find the alleged

Shiroma. PETITIONER was then able to locate Henrietta Doe
Dela Cruz (Dela Cruz for brevity). A copy of the Affidavit of
Witness of Henrietta Doe Dela Cruz is hereto attached as
ANNEX “E” to form an integral part hereof;

35. Dela Cruz informed the PETITIONER that RESPONDENT was

introduced to her as her nephew by JING. Moreover, Dela Cruz
informed the PETITIONER that RESPONDENT used to live at
the house of JING at Dacoville Subdivision, Dumoy, Talomo
 District and when JING and her family migrated to Japan, she
had no more information regarding the whereabouts of the
RESPONDENT;

36. PETITIONER exerted all efforts to find the RESPONDENT,

however, despite the diligent efforts to locate the said
RESPONDENT, none are availing;

37. PETITIONER has been precluded into starting/building her

own family by the disappearance of the RESPONDENT;

38. PETITIONER now has the full intentions to get married so she
can start to build her own family. And the only way that
PETITIONER can do that is for the RESPONDENT to be
declared presumptively dead for purposes of remarriage;

39. In Republic v. Cantor, The Supreme Court held that:

Before a judicial declaration of presumptive death can be

obtained, it must be shown that the prior spouse had been absent
for four consecutive years and the present spouse had a well-
founded belief that the prior spouse was already dead. Under
Article 41 of the Family Code, there are four essential requisites
for the declaration of presumptive death:

1. That the absent spouse has been missing for four

consecutive years, or two consecutive years if the
disappearance occurred where there is danger of death
under the circumstances laid down in Article 391 of the
Civil Code;

2. That the present spouse wishes to remarry;

3. That the present spouse has a well-founded belief that

the absentee is dead; and,

4. That the present spouse files a summary proceeding for

the declaration of presumptive death of the absentee.
(Emphasis supplied)

40. Ten (10) years have already passed and nothing has been heard
of PETITIONER’S husband. It is now PETITIONER’s strong
well – founded belief and honest feeling that her husband the
RESPONDENT is dead;
 WHEREFORE, premises considered, it is most respectfully
prayed of this Honorable Court that, after due notice and hearing, to
grant the instant petition, by declaring JOHN DOE
PRESUMPTIVELY DEAD and declaring the vinculum matrimony
between him and the PETITIONER to be legally severed, thereby
enabling her to remarry.

PETITIONER further prays for such other orders and reliefs just
and equitable under the foregoing premises.

Davao City, Philippines, February 27, 2019.

ATTY. JULY FRIENDSHIP RACEDAY

Roll of Attorney No. 33458
IBPNo.09876; January 10, 2019; Davao del Sur
PTR No. 134934834; Jan 07, 2019; Davao City
MCLE Compliance No. V-0024419
Email Address: julyfriendship.raceday@gmail.com