Short answer. Yes. Once the legitimes of your compulsory heirs have been set aside, what remains is the free portion, and the Civil Code lets you leave it to whomever you wish — a friend, a caregiver, a charity, a distant relative. The freedom is genuine, but it covers only that remainder.
What the law says
The testator may devise and bequeath the free portion as he may deem fit.
Civil Code, Article 914 — Free Disposal Of Free Portion. Read the full provision →
What the free portion is
Article 914 of the Civil Code is a single sentence: The testator may devise and bequeath the free portion as he may deem fit. Everything turns on those two words, free portion. Philippine law does not let a person dispose of an entire estate by will if he leaves compulsory heirs. A share fixed by law, the legitime, is reserved for them — broadly, legitimate children and descendants, in their absence legitimate parents and ascendants, the surviving spouse, and illegitimate children. So an estate is read in two layers: the reserved layer, which is not yours to give away, and whatever is left over. The leftover is the free portion this article speaks of.
Who may receive it
Within the free portion the choice is genuinely wide. It may go to someone outside the family, to a company or foundation, to a religious or charitable institution, or to one compulsory heir on top of the legitime he already takes — a way of favouring the child who stayed to care for you without stripping the others of what the law guarantees them. You may split it among several people, or tie it to a particular property rather than a fraction of the estate. What the article does not do is fund that generosity out of somebody else's reserved share.
The limits that still apply
Freedom over the free portion is not freedom from every rule. A will must be executed in the form the law requires, and one that fails those formalities disposes of nothing at all. The law also disqualifies certain persons from receiving by will, whether for incapacity or because of the relationship between them and the testator, and a gift to a disqualified person does not take effect merely because it sits in the free portion. Property that is not yours to give stays out of reach as well: your spouse's half of the community or conjugal property is not part of your estate, and naming it in a will does not make it so.
Lifetime gifts are counted in
People often assume that what they gave away while alive has left the picture. It has not. Donations made during the testator's lifetime are brought back into the computation when the estate is settled, precisely so that legitimes cannot be quietly emptied out in advance. If lifetime donations and gifts by will together eat into the reserved share, the excess can be reduced. Sensible planning therefore looks at the whole picture — what you have already given, what you intend to give, and what the compulsory heirs are entitled to — rather than at the will on its own.
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.
- Nelfa Delfin Trinidad, et al. vs. Salvador G. Trinidad, et al, G.R. No. 254695, December 6, 2023 — read the decision on LawPhil →