Aside from the last-minute shopping for gifts, Noche Buena grocery shopping, and the likes, December is also a season of love for many couples who are looking to get married in the “Kasalang Bayan.”
Apart from considering the readiness to commit to a lifetime relationship, it is important to ensure compliance with the legal requirements in contracting a marriage. Under the Family Code, the essential elements that should be present for the marriage to be valid are the legal capacity of the contracting parties and their consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer. Thus, the bride and the groom, must be at least 18 years of age, and they should have voluntarily said their “I dos” before a solemnizing officer. They must also have no prior subsisting marriage with someone else.
In marriages, either through civil or church weddings, one of the documents required is the Certificate of No Marriage or CENOMAR, to show that indeed, a party is legally single and free to marry. But what would you do if there was already a marriage recorded in your name?
A common misconception would be to file a petition in court and ask to declare the marriage as null and void given the absence of the essential requisites of marriage. However, since in such case, there is in fact no marriage to speak of, the proper remedy is to file a petition for correction and/or cancellation of entry in the civil registry under Rule 108.
This is the legal action that the respondent in the case of Republic of the Philippines vs. Olaybar[1] correctly resorted to when she discovered in her CENOMAR that she was mistakenly recorded as married to a certain person and upon her checking the certificate of marriage, she found that it contains her personal circumstances in the wife portion but her signature therein was forged. The Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the RTC granting the cancellation of the entries in the wife portion of the marriage contract “to reflect the truth as set forth by the evidence.”[2].
Like in every legal action, for the petition for correction and/or cancellation of entry in the civil registry under Rule 108 to prosper, it is very important to provide pieces of evidence, testimonial and documentary, to clearly establish that there was indeed no marriage that happened, and/or the recorded marriage was indeed either a mistake and/or a forgery, as the case may be.
In any case, the guidance of a duly-licensed lawyer is recommended for a more complete and thorough assessment of evidence and merits of your case.
[1] G.R. No. 189538, February 10, 2014.
[2] Ibid.
