family property law

I would like to asked for your legal advise concerning my legal grounds aand rights about family inheritance law in the republic of the philippines. My dad's family had owned various plots of land. When his parents died, obviously my dad got the properties as his inheritance. My Dad passed away 6 years ago but he did not leave a will. I am one of the four children in the family, and our mother is still alive. Soon after my dad passed away my mother took it upon herself to appoint herself as the administrator of the land and property of my Dad and we the children had no true knowledged of how and where she spent the money she recieves from my Dad's property income.My Dad has been renting his land to private lease as his source of income. We never asked any of these money from her as she told us that she is still alive and needed the money for her source of income. There is this particular plot of land that she has the great interest on it because this particular land has the biggest source of rental.And she's always been informing us her children that she is the one who own most of that share as she claimed it to be hers.Because when my dad was still alive she claimed that my dad's parents made a deed of donations or deed of sale to my dad for the purpose of saving paying inheritance tax. This particular property the title deed is already transferred to my Dad's name with my mother's name on it. Bear in mind all of these proprties are all acquired by inheritance of my dad from his parents. In my point of view I don't agree to all of these things that my mother is doing, it's so unfair.So what's is my legal grounds, have I got the right to file a case against my Mother that I would like all the proprties my dad left will be shared between us the rightful heirs and be shared rightfully according to the philippine laws of inheritance. Can I contest against my mother plan to owned most of the share of this specific property? I would greatly appreciate your advise on this matter.

note that i have to assume that you are legitimate and this is conjugal property and hypothetically valued P100 (so easy to convert to percentage). By her own right in the conjugal partnership, mom as spouse owns P50. The remaining 4 legitimate children and the spouse will split the the other P50 left by the decedent equally, so the outcome, mom gets P60, kids P10 each.

You can demand an accounting from your mother as the administratix of the estate.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your reply. RE: your explanation as to how the law of distribution of an intestate to their rightful heirs. I forgot to point out to you that my Mom and Dad are not legally married. So with that in mind, would it make any difference to the law of division to my Dad's estate? And concerning the involvment of the plot of land that my Mom would get, would this be considered as conjugal property? The way my Mom and Dad acquired the said property is through the Deed of Donation and that is to why they were able to transfer the title deeds to their names from my Dad's parents. I can only rely on this information based on what my mom has told us her four children. As a lay person, my own understanding is that the principle of COMMUNAL or CONJUGAL PROPERTY is that, the property will only be considered communal if both parties contributed together and in their joint effort to acquired the property. But in my case, my mom and Dad did not actually buy this property as it was only given through my grandparents to my dad.So please correct me with this if I am wrong. Also as my Dad owned several plots of land, does it mean my mom will also have a share to every plots of land my Dad has owned from his grandparents? Will my mom have the right to distribute her share from what she get from my dad's estate to a specific person like a grandchild for example or anybody she nominates? Can you clarify these points of law. Finally may I thank you most sincerely for all your help and advise on these matters. Much appreiciated.

NOTE: correction to previous statement due to mistyped ie,

Also as my Dad owned several plots of land, does it mean my mom will also have a share to every plots of land my Dad has owned from his grandparents?

CORRECT:
Also as my Dad owned several plots of land, does it mean my mom will also have a share to every plots of land my Dad has owned from his PARENTS?

why were they not married? was one of them previously married to someone else? was there any impediment to getting married?

Dear Attorney,

As far as I am aware, no impediment and there were no previous marriages and other children involved on both parties. And we are the only bore children from my mom and dad. So my previous question to you, 1. Are these properties (land) of my Dad he inherited from his parents are considered all communal properties between my mom and dad? 2. does my mom still in her legal rights to claim 60%, and us 4 children will get 10% each of the total estate of my Dad based on the common law partnership? 3. My mother clearly told us her four children that she will make a will and that two of her grandchildren and my youngest sister will get her share after her death. These people she specifically nominated are, the daughter of my eldest sister and the son of my second to the eldest sister and my youngest sister. So of all of her four children I am out of the equation as none of my children nor myself is being mention. I feel so hurt and think she being so unfair. 4. Have I got a strong grounds to contest against my mother's will that she has excluded me from getting my share that she get out from my dad's estate? Bear in mind all of these properties are all inheritance from my dad's parents. is there a covenant in philippine law of inheritance that first line in the heirachy of succession should always prevail regardless of a written will? I have ask my mother and the rest of my other sisters to have a meeting the six of us with a lawyer present to disscus of how we will divide our inheritance from our dad, but my mother and my youngest sister are not very cooperative. 5.Can I file a complaint of partition to the court? and what are the documents that I require to produce when filing a complaint of partition? My mother has custody of all title deeds of my Dad's estate. I really would like to settled this matter sooner rather than later as I don't want a family rift in the future. I would be so grateful if you can enlightment me of my situation. Thank you.

I would like to ask for your legal advice concerning our inheritance from my dad. My dad passed away last November. I am the second child in his three children. My dad did not leave any will before he passed away. My mother is still alive. My older brother has a great interest in the properties of our family, especially to the cars and land in our province. He almost claimed all of it. I have also a rights being a second child but my brother used his being older to me to claim all our properties. Can I contest against my older brother plan to owned most of the share of this specific property? Have I got the right to file a case against my older brother that I would like all the properties my dad left will be shared equally between us the rightful heirs and be shared rightfully according to the Philippine laws of inheritance?

i assume there are only 3 children and your parents were married.

all properties of the husband and wife / 2 spouses. half is owned by wife in her own right as share in conjugal property. other half is estate of father for inheritance. children and wife will have equal shares.

so from all the properties of the parents- wife: 62.5%, children 12.5% each.

yes, you may contest. start with talking with your brother. and don't forget your other sibling.

thank for the advise.
before i start to talk to my brother.
can you pls tell me in what article, where can i found in the philippine law regarding my concern.

it's all in the civil and family codes, and i applied practically all the provisions for succession to come up with this answer.