Divorced/Marriage

Ang boyfriend ko po ay Australian citizen. He got married here in the Philippines in 2003 with his ex wife, which is also a Filipino citizen. His ex wife migrated to Australia in 2005. The marriage ended in 2008. Divorced na po sila for 3 years.

Questions ko po ay:

1. Allowed po ba ang boyfriend ko na mag pakasal ulit dito sa pinas dahil divorced na sila ng ex wife nya?

2. Kaylangan pa po bang i-annul ang marriage nila ng exwife nya dito sa pilipinas?

Here are my answers to your questions:

1. Your Australian boyfriend can contract a marriage here, but he must file a petition in the court for the recognition of his divorce obtained abroad.

2. There is no need to have their marriage annulled. The divorce is sufficient.

lost, are you referring to the case of gerbert corpuz?

boom, what i would recommend as a minimum is that he reports the divorce to the philippine embassy. hopefully the divorce will be annotated on the marriage certificate. my position is that if the australian government issues a certificate of legal capacity to marry, he can validly get married.

the problem is that there will be a situation where his name will appear on two marriage certificates, and this can be basis for a charge of bigamy. if he absolutely wants to remove this risk, then he has to file a court petition for the recognition of his divorce.

@AttyLLL, that's the case I have in mind. The situation is similar. I think it's best to correct the record at the NSO with regards to the previous marriage. If you believe that the petition is superfluous, then I concede to your opinion atty..

no, i don't believe it is superfluous, but i believe that case has muddled the rules on this. even the dfa is confused what to do now with the reports on divorce they receive from overseas.

but see footnote 26 of the case. i think the court should have openly conceded that corpuz could have gotten married with just a certificate of legal capacity, and not have had to go through the expense and effort of having to go through litigation just to have his divorce registered.

26 Parenthetically, we add that an alien’s legal capacity to contract is evidenced by a certificate issued by his or her respective diplomatic and consular officials, which he or she must present to secure a marriage license (Article 21, Family Code). The Filipino spouse who seeks to remarry, however, must still resort to a judicial action for a declaration of authority to remarry.

Thank you very much for the reply, atty!