Is it possible that a child born as illegitimate can be considered legitimate? Yes, there are two ways of raising the status of a child from illegitimate to legitimate, that is, going through the process of legitimation and adoption. Let’s discuss each process one by one. Go back to the main article: An Ultimate Guide to an Illegitimate Child’s Rights, Birth Registration, and Legitimization
DISCLAIMER: This article has been written for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice or a substitute for legal counsel. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. The use of the information contained herein does not create an attorney-client relationship between the author and the user/reader.
Raising the status of an illegitimate child to that of legitimate is important in cases of successional rights. It also bears importance in cases where the child was born prior to March 19, 2004 and the latter wants to use the surname of the father.
Legitimation is a process whereby an illegitimate child becomes legitimate by virtue of the marriage of his or her parents.
Sec. 177 of the Family Code provides that a child conceived and born outside of wedlock to parents, who, at the time of conception of the child, were not disqualified by any impediment to marry each other may be legitimated.
As amended by Republic Act 9858 1 , a child born to parents who were below 18 years old may also be legitimated.
To summarize, legitimation has three requirements that must all be met in order for it to push through:
Example: You got pregnant by your boyfriend prior to you getting married and both of you have no impediment to marrying each other. The child is illegitimate but could be legitimated once you get married. In contrast, if both of you have an impediment to marrying each other at the time of conception and birth of the child (e.g. if you are in a bigamous marriage), the child can not be legitimated.
A child is legitimated by the subsequent valid marriage of the parents. Once legitimated, the child shall enjoy the same rights as a legitimate child. Please note that legitimation is retroactive. It means that the child becomes legitimate at the time of his birth, not at the time of marriage of the parents. (Sec. 178, 179,180, Family Code)
Even though the marriage of your parents has upgraded your status from illegitimate to legitimate, you still need to go through the process of legitimation in order to officially change your status and be entitled to all the rights of a legitimate child.
1. Complete the following requirements for registration:
b. Certificate of Live Birth of the child
c. Affidavit of legitimation executed by both parents which shall contain the following facts:
2. Go to the Office of the Civil Registrar (the city or municipality) where the child was born.
3. Register the document.
4. Request a certified true copy of the PSA birth certificate once the process has been completed. Here are the effects of the legitimation:
Republic Act No. 8552 2 or the “Domestic Adoption Act of the Philippines” provides that an illegitimate son or daughter of a qualified adopter may be adopted to improve the child’s status to that of legitimacy.
Example: In a situation where the child could not be legitimated because the parents have an impediment to marry each other at the time of the child’s conception and birth, the parent could adopt his or her own child so that the latter is now elevated to the status of a legitimate child.
Yes, you can legitimize the child through the process of adoption. Once adopted, the child shall become the legitimate child of the adopters, and shall acquire the reciprocal rights and obligations as a parent and child.
No, the child can no longer be legitimized. Given the death of the father, both options for legitimization as discussed in the article above have become impossible. Legitimation, or raising the status of the child from illegitimate to legitimate, occurs when the parents, later on, entered into a valid marriage. An illegitimate child may also become legitimate through the process of adoption, i.e. the parent shall adopt his or her illegitimate child. This is done to raise the status of the child from illegitimate to legitimate, which has effects on successional rights, among others.
Before you can adopt an illegitimate child, you must ensure first that several persons have consented to the act of adoption, as required by law.
According to Section 23 of Republic Act No. 11642 or the Domestic Administrative Adoption and Alternative Child Care Act 3 , the following people must provide written consent to the adoption after being properly counseled and informed of their right to approve or withdraw the approval of the said adoption:
According to our jurisprudence, the consent of these persons is necessary to maintain harmony among the family members. The adoption cannot push through if at least one of them withdraws their consent.
Kareen Lucero is a lawyer previously doing litigation before working for different agencies in the government and for a multinational corporation. She has traveled to 52+ countries including a 3-month solo backpacking in South East Asia and more than 1 year of solo traveling across four continents in the world. As part of giving back, she is passionate about sharing her knowledge of law and travel. She is currently doing consulting work for a government agency. For inquiries, you may reach her via Facebook Messenger (https://m.me/kareen.lucero.77) or email ([email protected]).
All materials contained on this site are protected by the Republic of the Philippines copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published, or broadcast without the prior written permission of filipiknow.net or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright, or other notice from copies of the content. Be warned that we have already reported and helped terminate several websites and YouTube channels for blatantly stealing our content. If you wish to use filipiknow.net content for commercial purposes, such as for content syndication, etc., please contact us at legal(at)filipiknow(dot)net
