Legal Separation in the Philippines

What is Legal Separation?

In the Philippines, Legal Separation is an action involving nothing more than the bed-and-board separation of the spouses (Lapuz Sy v. Eufenio, G.R. No. L-30977, 1972).

Unlike annulment, legal separation does not terminate the marriage bond; rather, it allows spouses to live separately while retaining their marital status.

It is a judicial process wherein the spouses are to live separately from each other and the obligation of mutual support between the spouses stops, but the marriage bond is not severed. Legally separated couples are not permitted to remarry, since their marriage is still considered valid and subsisting.

Even if you are legally separated from your spouse, the second marriage is still considered invalid and void.

Are there Any Grounds for Legal Separation?

Article 55 of the Family Code provides the grounds to petition for legal separation:

• Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;
• Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation;
• Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement;
• Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years, even if pardoned;
• Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent;
• Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;
• Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad;
• Sexual infidelity or perversion;
• Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or
• Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year.