04/01/2026
| The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that children's legitimacy is unaffected by the nullification of their parents' marriages due to psychological incapacity.
In a 19-page decision penned by Associate Justice Jhosep Lopez, the SC Second Division affirmed with modification the ruling of a Regional Trial Court (RTC) that declared a child illegitimate even after her parents’ marriage was nullified based on psychological incapacity, as stated in Article 36 of the Family Code.
The wife alleged she suffered physical, emotional, and verbal abuse from her husband during the marriage. As proof, she presented evidence of abuse and a psychological report that diagnosed her husband with narcissistic personality disorder.
Although the RTC voided the marriage, it also declared their child illegitimate, as her birth certificate did not state that she was legitimized. This prompted the Republic, through the Office of the Solicitor General to elevate the case before the Supreme Court.
In affirming the said ruling with modification, the SC cited previous jurisprudence to emphasize that the child is legitimate pursuant to Article 54 of the Family Code, which entitles the child to retain her legitimacy status as a consequence of her parent’s marriage.
“Since her legitimacy status is not affected by the declaration of nullity of marriage on the ground of psychological incapacity, the RTC must be reversed insofar as it declared [her] to be an illegitimate child of respondents,” the SC said.
It underscored that as a general rule, when a marriage is nullified, the child is considered illegitimate from the time they were conceived. But Article 54 of the Family Code provides for exceptions when the marriage is nullified due to psychological incapacity. This applies whether the child was born before or during the marriage.
The SC further explained that once a child is legitimated, there is no legal basis for changing their status back to illegitimate because that would go against the law’s intent to protect the child’s best interests.