Marriage in the Philippines Under the Constitution

“Our Constitution provides that marriages is an inviolable social institution and the foundation of the family and shall be protected by the State. There are many provisions of the present Constitution that depicts the importance of marriage. Not later after the adoption of the 1987 Constitution, Congress passed a law giving emphasis on marriage and the family, the Family Code of the Philippines which took effect on August 3, 1988. In one of the provisions of the Family Code, the nature, consequences and incidents of marriage are governed by law and not subject to any stipulation.

As to who may solemnize marriage, the answer is found in Article 7 of the Family Code of the Philippines and the Local Government Code of the Philippines. The members of the judiciary are authorized to solemnize marriages.

Civil marriages by a judge is that kind of marriage many budget conscious couples prefer over the more expensive but solemn and dramatic church marriage.

While our country remains to be dominated by Roman Catholics, it cannot be denied that more Filipinos now for one reason or another probably more due to budget constraints, choose to be married in accordance with the civil rites rather than in the church.

While in a church wedding, the contracting parties are usually ushered by the bestman, maid of honor, groomsmen, bridesmaids, and a choir, in a civil wedding, seldom a bestman, maid of honor much more groomsmen and bridesmaids are in the entourage.

BCIDP Law Group however would like to emphasize that Court Judges, Justices or even the Catholic Church priests are prohibited to conduct OUTDOOR weddings. So if you are planning for an OUTDOOR WEDDING (i.e. garden, beach, mountain, rooftop, pool, forest, bottom of the sea, etc, etc, call BCIDP Law Group (www.bcidplawgroup.com). We provide the legal options available to you as provided for by our existing laws and jurisprudence, whether its for a Civil or non-religious rites, or religious rites such as Islamic (Nikah), Catholic, Christian, Aglipay style, LDS (Mormons) style, Orthodox style, Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) style, etc. You name it and we’ll happily provide it to you as it is not prohibited by law under Art. 6 of our Family Code. The type of marriage rites is your OPTION as a soon-to-wed couple so long as the essential and formal requisites of marriage are present.

Not only that, we provide realistic “Pre-Marriage Counseling” for FREE to every soon-to-weds who signed up with us, giving true-to-life knowledge to couples on how to govern themselves during their marriage. These are the “secrets to live happily ever after”. Why secrets? Because not every married couple is doing or applying those principles. They are not being taught completely. They are not being taught seriously to every marrying couples. And the worst part of it, it was not being taught in all courses in school, however high your education is.

This “marriage reality check” is not even being shared or taught by the City Hall Civil Registrars during their required “Family Planning” and “Responsible Parenthood” Seminars. Simply because over population, crowded jails, heavy traffic, rice shortages, water shortages, and many other kind of shortages, are only the concerns of the government.