The

Philippine Family Code Article 1

LESSON I: THE FAMILY TODAY: fixes the definition of marriage and the resulting
“DECLINING OR CHANGING?” family based on the union:

The United Nations uses the term “Marriage is a special contract of
‘nucleus family’: permanent union between a man and a woman
entered into in accordance with law for the
A family nucleus is one of the following establishment of conjugal and family life. It is the
types (each which must consist of persons living foundation of the family and an inviolable social
in the same household): institution.”
a. a married couple without children,
b. a married couple with one or more The Philippine Family Code therefore
unmarried children, excludes same-sex marriage and polygamous
c. a father with one or more unmarried unions.
children, or
d. a mother with one or more unmarried [ Illegitimate Children ]
children. - an illegitimate is entitled to receive
support from his/her biological provided
[ Family ] that the latter recognized the child as his
- a fundamental social group in society own.
typically consisting of one or two parents - if the biological father did not recognize
and their children. the child as his own, then support cannot
- two or more people who share goals and be demanded unless a court order is
values, have long-term commitments to obtained for that matter.
one another and reside usually in the
same dwelling. [ Cohabitants ]
- a married mother and father and their - are couples who share a common
biological children living together under residence with a child, just like a nuclear
one roof. family, but without the benefit of
marriage.
All definitions of the family will have to - in some countries, cohabitants are not
address three components: residential, recognized as “official” families. They
biological, and functional roles. are therefore not accorded health
benefits, social security, and retirement
The family as a basic unit of society benefits of the partner.
performs several important functions or roles for
society: Types of Families:
1. for biological reproduction;
2. as the primary agent of socialization of [ Nuclear Family ]
children; - is the most basic family form and is made
3. as the institution for economic up of a married couple and their
cooperation through division of labor; biological or adopted children.
and
4. to care for and nurture children to [ Extended Family ]
become responsible adults. - are families that include the other
members of the kinship group like your
uncle, grandparents, and cousins.

Marriage and the Family: 4. [ Levirate ]
- prescribes that widows marry the
[ Article 213 of the Family Code ] brother nearest kin of the deceased
- provides that no child under seven years husband.
of age shall be separated from the
mother, unless he court finds compelling Types of Marriage:
reasons to order otherwise.
1. [ Monogamy ]
[ Light and Keller, 1985 ] - to be married to one person at a time.
- defines marriage as a socially recognized
union between two or more individuals 2. [ Bigamy ]
that typically involves sexual and - having more than one marriage partner
economic rights and duties. at a time. This is illegal in Britain.
- they further elucidated their view of
marriage: 3. [ Serial Monogamy ]
- having several marriage partners one
“Marriage is a business partnership as after the other — not at the same time.
much as a romantic fairytale; it involves
compromises, division of labor, specialization, 4. [ Polygamy ]
financial arrangement, and communication - to have more than one marriage partner.
systems.”
• Polygyny — man having several wives.
Aspects of Marriage: • Polyandry — a woman having several
• Legal Point of View — posits that husbands at the same time.
marriage is not a contract.
• Religious Point of View — posits that 5. [ Group Marriage ]
marriage is a sacrament. - two or more husbands and two or more
wives.
“What God has put together let no man
put asunder.” • In the case of Jacob on the Old
Testament, a man marries several
Norms of Marriage: sisters. This practice is known as sororal
polygyny.
1. [ Endogamy ]
- is a rule that requires a person to marry Important Legal Matters on Marriage:
someone from within his or her own
group — tribe, nationality, religion, race [ Prenuptial Agreement ]
community, or any other social - 7 years invalidation with the husband.
grouping.
[ Annulment ]
2. [ Exogamy ] - refers to a legal process of filing a
- is a rule that requires a person to marry petition in the appropriate court seeking
someone from outside his/her own a judicial declaration of making a
group. marriage null and void or from the
beginning as if no marriage took place.
3. [ Sororate ]
- prescribes that a widower marry the
sister or nearest kin of the decease wife.
Grounds for Annulment (Article 45): [ Divorce ]
1. One of the contracting parties is 18 years - also know as dissolution of marriage, is
of age or over but below 21 and without the termination of a marriage or marital
parental consent; union, the cancelling or reorganizing of
2. Either party was of unsound mind; the legal duties and responsibilities of
3. Consent of either party was obtained by marriage, thus dissolving the bonds of
fraud, force, and intimidation: matrimony between a married couple
4. Either party was physically incapable of under the rule of law of the particular
consummating the marriage with the country or state.
other; - reasons for divorce vary, from sexual
5. Either party was afflicted with a sexually incompatibility or lack of independence
transmissible disease found to be for one or both spouses to a personality
serious and incurable. clash.
- the only countries that do not allow
[ Legal Separation ] divorce are the Philippines, the Vatican
- refers to the legal process of filling a City, and the British Crown Dependency
petition in the appropriate court seeking of Sark.
a judicial declaration of legal separation
for married couples. Basis on Choosing a Marriage Partner:
- a process where the spouses informally
stop cohabiting. 1. [ Parental Selection/Arranged Marriages ]
- does not end the marriage and both - families that have important stake in the
spouses are prohibited from remarrying type of spouse their son or daughter will
or entering into a domestic partnership take usually practice.
with another person.
2. [ Romantic Love ]
Grounds for Legal Separation (Article 55): - has become an important basis for
1. Repeated physical violence or grossly marriage in our society. It is the theme
abusive conduct directed against the of most of our popular songs, the subject
petitioner; of many of our movies and television
2. Physical violence or moral pressure to shows, and made active in scores of
compel the petitioner, apolitical popular books and magazine articles.
affiliation;
3. Attempt of respondent to corrupt or Why People Marry:
induce the petitioner, a common child, 1. Love
or a child of the petitioner, to engage in 2. Economic security
prostitution, or connivance in such 3. Emotional security
corruption or inducement; 4. Parent’s wishes
4. Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of 5. Escape from loneliness
the respondent; 6. Common interest
5. Lesbianism or homosexuality of the 7. Parenthood
respondent; 8. Physical attraction
6. Contracting by the respondent of a 9. Compatibility
subsequent bigamous marriage, 10. Martial bliss and happiness
whether in the Philippines or abroad; 11. Unhappy home situation
7. Sexual infidelity or perversion. 12. Money
13. Companionship
14. Protection
 15. Adventure [ Women & Education ]
16. Sex and sexual attraction - education is a right. The United Nations
17. Begetting the rearing of children Declaration of Universal Human Rights
18. Acceptance responsibility Article states:
19. Death of a former spouse 1. Everyone has the right to education.
20. Care and nurturance 2. Education shall be directed to the full
development of the human personality
and to the strengthening of respect for
human rights.
LESSON II: EDUCATION &
REPRODUCTION OF INEQUALITY [ Republic Act no. 9710, “An Act Providing for
the Magna Carta of Women in 2008” ]
[ Education and Social Reproduction ] - recognizes the biases against women
- refers to the formal and informal and violence against them, the
process of transmitting the knowledge, Philippine government promulgated.
beliefs, and skills from one generation to
the next. [ Sec. 13, “Equal Access and Elimination of
Discrimination in Education, Scholarships, and
Functions of Education: Training” ]
1. Critical skills to challenge. - the State shall ensure that gender
2. Change the existing knowledge system stereotypes and images in educational
and practices. materials and curricula are adequately
3. Education could cure social ills. and appropriately revised. Gender-
sensitive language shall be used at all
• Horace Mann — an American times.
educational reformer; “Social Ills”.
“Education is what is left after you have
Key Concepts on Education: forgotten everything you learned at school.”
— Albert Einstein
[ Credentialism ]
- refers to the common practice of relying “Education is key. Do not underestimate
on earned credentials when hiring staff the power of good education.”
or assigning social status rather than on — Leni Robredo, 2016
actual skills.
The Purpose of Education:
• Collin — argued that no credentials will 1. To fill and perform available jobs, be to
only be the basis but the skills of the create workers who have skills.
applicant. 2. To develop their own capacity for personal
achievement and contributing to society as
[ Cultural Capital ] an active citizen for democracy.
- is acquired in the family from which one
belongs. It is further reinforced in the Philosophy of Education: ‘Progressivism’
“academic market” that hone students “…if we teach today as we taught
capabilities. yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow…”
— John Dewey



 humankind is free from oppression and
LESSON III: ECONOMY, SOCIETY, insufficiency, and where there is no need
& CULTURAL CHANGE for government or countries and no class
divisions.
The Importance of Economic Structure:
Benefits of Communism:
[ Karl Marx ] • The end goal of communism was to
- is basically arguing that the different eradicate class distinctions among
kinds of social relations that are people, where everyone shared equally
generate by the economic production of in the proceeds of society, when
human beings of a particular society government would no longer be needed.
shape the entire life, beliefs, and
activities of that society. Drawbacks of Communism:
• The people do not have any private
Three Types of Class: belongings and all assets belong to the
— Karl Marx government.
• According to economic scholars,
1. [ Bourgeoisie ] communism is concept, in that
- the Communist Manifesto referred as ownership of land, capital, and industry
“owners of the means of social cannot be owned or controlled by the
production and employers of wage individual.
labor.”
“The main objective of Communism is to
2. [ Proletariat ] develop society without rulers, a society where
- or the working class; are said to be “the the people oversee themselves. But until this is
class of modern wage-laborers who, accomplished, a superior government has
having no means of production of their absolute power.”
own, are reduced to selling their labor-
power in order to live.” “They wanted to end the exploitation of
the masses by the few.”
3. [ Peasant ]
- includes landless farmers who are forced [ Capitalism ]
to offer their services to the big - was described by numerous theorists as
landowners. “an economic system characterized by
private or corporation ownership of
According to The Communist Manifesto: capital goods, by investments that are
• Abolition of Private Property determined by private decision rather
• Heavy Progressive Income Tax than by state control, and by prices,
• Abolition of Rights of Inheritance production and the distribution of goods
• Confiscation of Property Rights that are determined mainly in free
• Government Control of Education market.”
• Government Control of Education,
Communication, Transportation, and Benefits of Capitalism:
Labor • This is an economic growth through
open competitive market that provides
[ Communism ] individuals with far better opportunities
- is the idea of a free society with no of raising their own income.
division or estrangement, where
 • Consumer choice where individuals [ Secularization ]
choose what to consume, and this - belief that religion will gradually
choice leads to more competition and disappear.
better products and services.
• Sigmund Freud — founder of
Drawbacks of Capitalism: psychoanalysis.
• Inequality • Karl Marx — father of scientific
• Irrational Behavior socialism.
• Monopoly Behavior
Types of Religious Organizations:
[ Socialism ] • Church
- is political philosophy considered by • Sect
public ownership and centralized • Denomination
planning of all major industries are ruled • Cult
by the government which include
manufacturing, services, and energy, Common Characteristics of Religions:
banks, and insurance companies, - belief in:
agribusiness, transportation, the media, • Deity or God
and medical facilities. • Doctrine of Salvation
• Code of Conduct
Benefits of Socialism: • Body of Religious Rituals
• Greater Economic Proficiency
• Absence of Monopolistic Practices [ Thomas Aquinas ]
• Absence of Business Fluctuations - born 1224; from Roccasecca, Italy; died
1274.
Drawbacks of Socialism: - studied in Paris; studied Aristotle in Italy.
• Loss of Consumers’ Dominance - Pope Leo XXIII — declared him “chief
• No Freedom of Occupation and master among all the scholastic
• Misallocation of Resources doctors” in 1879.
• Bureaucratic
The Investigation of God:
• There are three divisions of the treatment of
God, concerning:
LESSON IV: RELIGION & THE - the divine presence
SEARCH FOR ULTIMATE - the distinction of three Persons in one
MEANING God
- the creatures as they proceed from God
[ Religion ]
- From the latin verb “religare”, which • The treatment of the divine essence has
means ‘to tie’ or ‘to bind fast’. three parts:
- a powerful institution that connects 1. Whether God exists
human beings, both as individuals and 2. How God exists
collective, to a transcendent reality. 3. The operations of God (knowledge, will,
- has a pervasive effect and influence on power, etc.)
the development of humanity, society,
culture and the individual.

Proving the Existence of God: 2. Acting for an end depends on a purpose.
• We prove God’s existence as the cause of 3. A purpose depends on knowledge.
effects in nature. 4. Many beings that act for an end lacks
• If the effect exists, its cause must exist knowledge.
before it does. 5. So, those beings are directed by a being
• But this kind of argument reveals the cause that has knowledge.
only to a limited extent, as the effects are 6. God is the being who directs all natural
finite and God is infinite. things.
7. So, God exists.
[ The Argument From Motion ]
- states that: [ The Problem of Evil ]
1. An object cannot both move and be - the argument from evil:
moved in the same respect and the same 1. If God exists, then goodness is infinite,
way. and there is no room for evil in the
2. So, if an object is moved, there is a world.
distinct mover. 2. There is evil.
3. The series of movers cannot go infinitely. 3. So, God does not exist.
4. So, there is a first mover which is not - but the existence of evil is compatible
moved. with that of God.
5. The unmoved mover is God. - God allows evil for the production of
6. So, God exists. good.

[ The Argument from Causality ] [ Does God Exist Argument ]
- states that: - “Where is God when I need him?”
1. Nothing can be prior to itself. - but the right question is, “Where are you
2. So, nothing in nature can be the efficient when you need God?”
cause of itself. - most people forget that:
3. The series of efficient causes cannot go
on infinitely. Romans 8:28
4. So, there is a first efficient cause. “All things word together for our own
5. The first efficient cause is God. good for those who love God.”
6. So, God exists.
LESSON V: POLITICS, POWER, &
[ The Argument of Gradation ]
- states that: SOCIETY
1. All things in nature comes in degrees.
2. If something comes in degrees, it must The 1987 Preamble of the Constitution of the
be comparable to maximum. Republic of the Philippines:
3. The maximum in a genus is the cause of
all that falls into the genus. “We, the sovereign Filipino people,
4. So, there must be a maximum of imploring the aid of the Almighty God, in order to
goodness and all perfections. build a just and humane society, and establish a
5. The maximum of perfections is God. Government that shall embody our ideals and
6. So, God exists. aspirations, promote the common good,
conserve and develop our patrimony, and secure
[ The Argument of Governance ] to ourselves and our posterity, the blessings of
- states that: independence and democracy under the rule of
1. Natural bodies act for an end. law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love,
equality, and peace, do ordain and promulgate 1. [ Legislative ]
this Constitution.” - is authorized to make laws, alter, and
repeal them through the power vested
[ Preamble ] in the Philippine Congress.
- derived from the Latin term - this institution is divided into the Senate
“preambulare” which means ‘to walk and the House of Representatives.
before’.
- is an invocation or the opening prayer in 2. [ Executive ]
any activity or the prologue of the - is composed of the President and the
constitution, invoking the highest Vice President who are elected by direct
sovereign God Almighty to bless this popular vote and serves a term of six
instrument. years; the Constitution grants the
- is not an integral part of the constitution President authority to appoint his
and could not be enforced, however its Cabinet.
significance is that studies made showed - these departments form a large portion
that almost all of the constitution made of the country’s bureaucracy.
to contain a preamble.
3. [ Judicial ]
Objectives of the Preamble: - holds the power to settle controversies
It is generally considered that a involving rights that are legally
preamble is not a necessary part of a demandable and enforceable. This
constitution, but as an introductory part, it is branch determines whether or not there
needed in the Philippine constitution. The has been a grave abuse of discretion
preamble of the Philippine constitution shows its amounting to lack or excess of
framers and to whom is it addressed to and also jurisdiction on the part and
the general purpose and basic principles of the instrumentality of the government.
charter. - it is made up of a Supreme Court and
lower courts.
As interpreted, the preamble has a
value in the interpretation of vague or not clear The Constitution expressly grants the
provisions of the constitution like the Supreme Court the power of Judicial Review as
promotions of the constitution like that of the the power to declare a treaty, international or
general welfare and not for private purposes. executive agreement, law, presidential decree,
proclamation, order, instruction, ordinance, or
Branches and Functions of State Power: regulation unconstitutional.
The Philippines is a republic with a
presidential form of government wherein power Democracy in the Philippines:
is equally divided among its three branches: The features and manifestation of a
executive, legislative, and judicial. democratic and republican state are:
• The existence of a bill of rights
One basic corollary in a presidential • The observance of the rule of the
system of government is the principle of majority
separation of powers wherein legislation • The observance of the principle that
belongs to Congress, execution to the Executive, “ours is a government of laws and
and settlement of legal controversies to the not of men.”
Judiciary. • The presence of elections through
popular will

 • The observance of the principle of produce, and particularly describing the
separation of powers and the place to be searched and the persons or
system of checks and balances.., things to be seized.
• The observance of the law in public
office • Section 3 — (1) The privacy of
• The observance of the principle that communication and correspondence shall be
the state cannot be sued without its inviolable except upon lawful order of the
consent court, or when public safety or order
requires otherwise, as prescribed by law. (2)
The Observance of the Principle that Ours is a Any evidence obtained in violation of this or
Government of Laws, and not of Men: the preceding section shall be inadmissible
It means that laws are to be interpreted for any purpose in any proceeding.
objectively, not reread by individuals and are to
be applied to everyone without regard for their • Section 4 — No law shall be passed abridging
positions, reputations or personal relationships the freedom of speech, of expression, or of
with others. the press, or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble and petition the
A government of men, on the other government for redress of grievances.
hand, would be the one that is subjective,
depending on the relationship of those enforcing • Section 5 — No law shall be made respecting
the laws and those against whom the laws might an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
be enforced; there is no one above the law. the free exercise thereof. The free exercise
and enjoyment of religious profession and
The rule of law, at its most basic, means worship, without discrimination or
that the law applies to everyone equally. It preference, shall forever be allowed. No
means that no one is above the law. It is also religious test shall be required for the
popularly understood as “a government of law, exercise of civil or political rights.
not of men.” And while the law may be harsh, it
is the law; dura lex, sed lex. • Section 6 — The liberty of abode and of
changing the same within the limits
The 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the prescribed by law shall not be impaired
Philippines Bill of Rights — Article III: except upon lawful order of the court.
Neither shall the right to travel be impaired
• Section 1 — No person shall be deprived of except in the interest of national security,
life, liberty or property without due process public safety, or public health, as may be
of law, nor shall any person be denied the provided by law.
equal protection of the laws.
• Section 7 — The right of the people to
• Section 2 — The right of the people to be information on matters of public concern
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and shall be recognized. Access to official
effects against unreasonable searches and records, and to documents and papers
seizures of whatever nature and for any pertaining to official acts, transactions, or
purpose shall be inviolable, and no search decisions, as well as to government research
warrant or warrant of arrest shall issue data used as basis for policy development,
except upon probable cause to be shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such
determined personally by the judge after limitations as may be provided by law.
examination under oath or affirmation of the
complainant and the witnesses he may
• Section 8 — The right of the people,
including those employed in the public and
private sectors, to form unions, associations,
or societies for purposes not contrary to law
shall not be abridged.

• Section 9 — Private property shall not be
taken for public use without just
compensation.

• Section 10 — No law impairing the
obligation of contracts shall be passed.