2 marriage certificates versus cenomar

Hello po.

I am now confused about my marital status.

SHORT STORY VERSION

I married woman last 1997. She was 21 yrs old that time. Had kids with her for the past decade.

Months before my marriage (1997) to her, I got informed that she was married first in civil to another guy while she was 18 yrs, due to her "immaturity" etc that time. That was last 1995, 2 years before our marriage.

NSO CENOMAR showed that my wife was married last 1995 only as mentioned above but not to me.

NSO Cert Marriage showed that we were also married last 1997.

Atty, question po sana, since I finally decided to leave our unhappy marriage:

1. Is my 1997 marriage to her void? Not legal?
2. Can I/she marry again legally anytime?

Financial support to kids is a different story that I cannot ignore and will continue to provide as much as possible to fit in.

Please advise po. Thanks and regards!

She is a bigamist! And anyone can sue her for that! Until its proven you cannot regard your marriage as null and void you have to go through the process before you can marry another woman I'm afraid! Consult your lawyer about this and submit enough evidence such as authenticated NSO CENOMAR and your NSO MC authenticated copy.

Thanks po sa replies.

Any rough idea po ng financial/court hearing fees that I have to prepare for filing bigamy case against her ?

Can she counter-sue me? Or what are her possible legal moves to sue me or against me? I never neglected providing financial support to her and kids for the entire years of our marriage maliit man or malaki.

Can all the acquired assets (under our married name) within our marriage time be given to my name alone? She had registered some asset like vehicle to her name. Can you explain more of the process/options that I need to undergo to possible get those assets under my name?


Appreciate your time and any replies.

Filing bigamy may backfire to you if you know from the beginning that she is already married! About the assets being under her name, if you can prove that the money she uses to purchase this is yours, then you may have the chance to get it back. Otherwise, it stay under her name. I have no idea with the cost of bigamy.

Would backfire?  How? Sorry I could not understand that well, can you please explain more?

When I met her in the company where we used to work together, she was using her maiden name company-wide. She had declared that she was single on company HR records, SSS, and PRC license card record.

From the start, I was made to understand by these records that she was still single at that point of time. Even her SSS records showed that she was still single at that point of time though she was already married. So I courted her believing that she was totally single.

I then realized or was told somehow that she was already married during the middle period of our BF-GF relationship, for about 2 2/1 months before our civil marriage. I could not make myself believed that. And I was in a complicated point as she was carrying our now grown up son, so we have decided to go for civil marriage.

Can I still possible proceed for bigamy case? Am I making any sense?

yes, you can file a bigamy case if criminal prosecution is your intention, but this will not void your marriage. but i would not advise admitting you knew that she was already married before the wedding.

you can instead (or also) file a petition for declaration of nullity based on a prior existing marriage. the legal fees in our office fora case we handled was budgeted for 75k over the course of the proceedings.

At the moment, my intention po is not to put her on jail for that bigamy case. Instead, my intention po is to push thru of getting out of our marriage legally. Bottomline, unhappy marriage with 3 kids already.

If we opt for petition for declaration of nullity based on prior existing marriage, and it becomes successful. Ang question ko po sana:

1. Can I marry again legally after my petition turned into my favor po?
2. Do you believe po ba that this type of case/appeal usually turns out into my favor to nullify yung marriage namin?
3. Can I have the asset/s transfer back to my name alone? Or conjugal property pa rin po ba sya? Would that be another case?

Yung 75K po, over all total fees na po yun over the case/proceedings? How many months po bago malaman ang resulta ng appeal or resulting decision?

One time payment po ba ang 75K or spread over the entire proceedings?

Do you accept online payments na po ba? Or staggard bank deposits just incase we let you handle this appeal/case?

What are the procedure and requirements po to proceed? Para ma prepare mo beforehand. Thanks po sa reply din.
I am outside Manila but still on Region 3. So wala po bang problema kung sa office nyo ipasok ang case/petition or should it be done where we currently stay?

AttyLLL thanks po sa reply.