Short answer. No. Article 908 of the Civil Code explicitly excludes charges imposed in the will from the deductions made to compute the net hereditary estate used to calculate the legitime. Real debts and other charges the law recognizes are deducted, but charges the testator wrote into the will are not.
What the law says
To determine the legitime, the value of the property left at the death of the testator shall be considered, deducting all debts and charges, which shall not include those imposed in the will.
Civil Code, Article 908 — Computing The Net Estate. Read the full provision →
How the legitime is computed
Article 908 sets out the process for arriving at the base figure from which the forced heirs' shares are calculated. Start with the value of all property left at the testator's death. Deduct all debts and charges — the real obligations the estate owes: loans, unpaid taxes, funeral expenses within reason, and similar liabilities that existed before or arose at death. What remains is the net hereditary estate. To that, the law adds back donations the testator made during their lifetime that are subject to collation. The resulting figure is what the legitime fractions are applied to.
Will-imposed charges do not reduce the base
The exclusion in Article 908 is precise: charges imposed in the will are not deducted. Your father's directions to hold a mass, fund a scholarship, or carry out any other act are obligations he created by his will — they are not pre-existing debts. The law treats them as dispositions from the estate, not as reductions to the estate before the legitime is measured. The forced heirs' shares are calculated on the full net estate, and only after the legitimes are secured do the will-imposed charges get satisfied from whatever remains available.
Why the distinction matters
If will-imposed charges were counted as deductions, a testator could effectively shrink the net estate through large charitable bequests or expensive funeral instructions before the forced heirs' shares were even calculated. This would allow the will to encroach on the legitime indirectly. Article 908 prevents that by keeping a clean separation: true debts reduce the estate before the legitime is set; the testator's personal wishes from the will are carried out from what is left after the forced heirs have received their protected shares.
When will-imposed charges might not be fully satisfied
Because will-imposed charges are satisfied after the legitime is secured, they are at risk of being reduced or going unsatisfied if the estate is not large enough. If your father's estate is modest and the forced heirs' shares consume most of it, the scholarship fund or the mass may receive less than what the will directed, or nothing at all. This is the trade-off the law makes: forced heirs are protected first, and the testator's voluntary dispositions — however sincere — take what is left. If you are an executor or beneficiary trying to understand how to apply these rules to a specific estate, legal guidance is advisable.
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.
- Pablo Uy, substituted by his heirs, namely: Mylene D. Uy, Paul D. Uy, G.R. No. 227460, December 5, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Spouses Bernardo Buenaventura, et al. vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 126376, November 20, 2003 — read the decision on LawPhil →