Short answer. Possibly, but only if the addiction already existed at the time of the marriage and was concealed from you. Concealment of drug addiction is one of four circumstances the Family Code treats as fraud; an addiction that began after the wedding is not this ground, however bad it has become.
What the law says
(4) Concealment of drug addiction, habitual alcoholism or homosexuality or lesbianism existing at the time of the marriage.
Family Code, Article 46 — What Constitutes Fraud. Read the full provision →
What the law says
No other misrepresentation or deceit as to character, health, rank, fortune or chastity shall constitute such fraud as will give grounds for action for the annulment of marriage.
Family Code, Article 46 — What Constitutes Fraud. Read the full provision →
The words that decide it are the last six
The clause reads Concealment of drug addiction, habitual alcoholism or homosexuality or lesbianism existing at the time of the marriage, and that closing phrase carries most of the weight. The condition must already have existed on the wedding day. A spouse who started using afterwards, or whose occasional use only hardened into dependence years later, is outside this ground no matter how much harm has since been done to the household. That is where these cases most often fail, so the first honest question is not how bad things are now but what was already true then.
Concealment is the other half
The fraud lies in the fact being kept from you. If you knew before you married — because you saw it, were told, or lived with it — nothing was concealed and the ground falls away. Suspicion is not knowledge, and a spouse who minimised or explained away what you noticed may still have concealed it. The law also treats freely living together as husband and wife after you learn the full facts as acceptance of the marriage, so what you did in the months after you found out can matter as much as the discovery.
Nothing outside the four circumstances counts
The article shuts the door on everything else: No other misrepresentation or deceit as to character, health, rank, fortune or chastity shall constitute such fraud as will give grounds for action for the annulment of marriage. A hidden gambling habit, hidden debts, a hidden temper or a hidden past are outside it, however deliberately they were kept from you. Note too that the same clause names habitual alcoholism beside drug addiction, so heavy drinking concealed at the time of the marriage is covered by the same words on the same terms.
What a lawyer would need to see
Proof has to go to both halves: that the addiction existed before the wedding, and that you did not know. Treatment or rehabilitation records predating the marriage, messages, and people who knew and were asked to keep quiet all bear on that. Fix the date you found out as precisely as you can, because an action for annulment on the ground of fraud runs from discovery. If the addiction began only after the marriage, the provision to ask about instead is Article 55, which is worded differently and does not undo the marriage.
Cases citing this provision
These Supreme Court decisions cite the provision above. We list them so you can read them yourself; the summaries of what each decided are not ours to give.
- Republic of the Philippines vs. Melvin T. Villacorta, G.R. No. 249953, June 23, 2021 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Republic of the Philippines vs. Liberty D. Albios, G.R. No. 198780, October 16, 2013 — read the decision on LawPhil →