Philippine Family Law: Grounds for Legal Separation

Grounds for Legal Separation

• Contracting a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad
• Sexual infidelity or perversion
• Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner
• Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year

Denial of Petition for Legal Separation

• Where the aggrieved party has condoned the offense or act complained of
• Where the aggrieved party has consented to the commission of the offense or act complained of
• Where there is connivance between the parties in the commission of the offense or act constituting the ground for legal separation
• Where both parties have given ground for legal separation
• Where there is collusion between the parties to obtain decree of legal separation
• Prescription of action or where the action was not filed within 5 years from the time of the occurrence of the cause

Effects of Decree of Legal Separation

• The spouses shall be entitled to live separately from each other, but the marriage bonds shall not be severed
• The absolute community or the conjugal partnership shall be dissolved and liquidated, but the offending spouse shall have no right to any share of the net profits earned by the absolute community or the conjugal partnership, which shall be forfeited in accordance with the provisions
• The custody of the minor children shall be awarded to the innocent spouse
• The offending spouse shall be disqualified from inheriting from the innocent spouse by intestate succession

Landmark Cases in Juvenile Law

• Jones v. United States (recognizing that a juvenile cannot be adjudicated in a juvenile court and then tried for the same offense in an adult criminal court)
• Kent v. United States (providing the procedural requirements for waiver to criminal court as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court)
• In re Gault (1967) (requiring juvenile courts to provide basic procedural protections guaranteed by the Bill of Rights)
• Schall v. Martin (1984) (upholding the state's right to place juveniles in preventive detention)

Types of Delinquent Youth

• Social (an aggressive youth who resents authority)
• Neurotic (internalized conflicts and preoccupied with their own feelings)
• Asocial (delinquent acts have a cold, brutal, and vicious quality)

Factors Affecting Juvenile Delinquency

• Individual risk factors (psychological or behavioral risk factors that may make offending more likely)
• Family (faulty development, lack of parental guidance, parental rejection, broken home, parental abuse or neglect, criminal parents or siblings)
• Environment (community, government agencies, and other external factors that influence delinquency)

Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage

• Marriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship
• Forms of marriage: monogamy and polygamy (types of polygamy include polyandry and polygyny)
• Kinds of marriage: adoptive marriage, sororate marriage, levirate marriage, and ghost marriage
• Financial considerations of marriage: dowry, bride price and dower, modern customs, and taxation
• Termination of marriage: death, divorce, annulment, and alimony (spousal support)

Marriage in the Philippines

• Executive Order No. 209 (The Family Code of the Philippines as amended by Executive Order No. 227) prescribes the following legal provisions concerning marriage
• 2 essential requisites of valid marriage: legal capacity of the contracting parties who must be male and female, and consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer
• 3 formal requisites of marriage: authority of the solemnizing officer