Short answer. No, apart from two narrow exceptions. Making gifts of your property requires a special power of attorney. The clause itself excepts customary gifts for charity and customary gifts to employees in the business that the agent manages — anything beyond those two needs express authority.
What the law says
Special powers of attorney are necessary in the following cases:
Civil Code, Article 1878 — Acts Requiring a Special Power of Attorney. Read the full provision →
What the law says
To make gifts, except customary ones for charity or those made to employees in the business managed by the agent
Civil Code, Article 1878 — Acts Requiring a Special Power of Attorney. Read the full provision →
The rule and its two carve-outs
The starting position is that an agent cannot give your property away. The exceptions are narrow and both turn on the word customary: gifts for charity that are customary, and gifts to employees in the business the agent manages. The second exception is tied to a business under the agent's own management, which is what makes it workable — the agent is running something, and ordinary practice in running it includes the usual seasonal or occasional giving to staff. Neither exception licenses generosity on a different scale.
Customary means ordinary, not merely reasonable
The test the clause sets is not whether a gift was sensible or affordable. It is whether the gift was customary. That points to what has actually been done before, in this business or by this principal, at this sort of level. A gift that is defensible but unprecedented falls outside the exception. The narrowness is deliberate: an exception measured by what seems reasonable to the agent would swallow the rule it is attached to.
Donating land engages a second clause as well
If what your agent proposes to give away is real property, the article catches it twice over. Besides the clause on gifts, the article requires a special power to enter into any contract by which the ownership of an immovable is transmitted or acquired either gratuitously or for a valuable consideration — the word gratuitously is there precisely to cover donations. And under Art. 1874, an agent's authority in a transaction over land must be in writing.
What to check in the document
A power of attorney that authorises the agent to “manage, administer and deal with” your property is not a power to give it away, however sweeping it sounds. If you genuinely intend your agent to be able to make a donation, the instrument has to say so and identify what may be given. This is general information about what the Code requires; whether a particular instrument confers the power depends on its own wording.
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.
- Reman Recio vs. Heirs of Spouses Aguego and Maria Altamirano, namely Alejandro, et al., all surnamed Altamirano, et al, G.R. No. 182349, July 24, 2013 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Alvin Patrimonio vs. Napoleon Gutierrez and Octavio Marasigan III, G.R. No. 187769, June 4, 2014 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Fil-Estate Properties, Inc. vs. Paulino Reyes, et al, G.R. No. 152797, September 18, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Cezar Yatco Real Estate Services, Inc., GRD Property Resources, Inc. Gamaliel Pascual, Jr., Ma. Lourdes Limjap Pascual and Aurora Pijuan vs. Bel-air Village Association, Inc. Represented…, G.R. No. 211780, November 21, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1878 — Acts Requiring a Special Power of Attorney
- Civil Code, Article 1874 — Sale of Land Through an Agent