Short answer. Yes. The Family Code lets an aggrieved spouse apply to the court for relief where the other neglects his or her duties to the conjugal union, or commits acts tending to bring danger, dishonor or injury to the other or to the family. It does not require ending the marriage.
What the law says
When one of the spouses neglects his or her duties to the conjugal union or commits acts which tend to bring danger, dishonor or injury to the other or to the family, the aggrieved party may apply to the court for relief.
Family Code, Article 72 — Relief for Neglect or Acts Endangering the Family. Read the full provision →
A remedy that does not require ending anything
Most of what people know about family litigation is about undoing a marriage. This provision is different: it assumes the marriage continues and gives the aggrieved spouse a way to bring conduct within it before a court. That makes it useful to the many people whose situation is serious but who do not want, or cannot presently afford, a petition for annulment or legal separation. The conduct it describes may also happen to be a ground for those actions, but nothing in the article requires you to choose that route.
Two kinds of conduct are covered
The first is neglect — where a spouse neglects his or her duties to the conjugal union, which reaches the spouse who has stopped supporting the household or has withdrawn from it while remaining in it. The second is affirmative: acts which tend to bring danger, dishonor or injury to the other or to the family. Notice that the acts need only tend to that result, so harm need not yet have landed, and dishonor sits beside danger, taking in conduct that damages the family's standing rather than its safety.
The relief is not spelled out
The article says the aggrieved party may apply to the court for relief and stops there. That silence is deliberate: what is appropriate depends on what is happening, and the provision is a doorway rather than a menu. In practice what is asked for is shaped around the problem — most often concerning support, the family's money, and the conduct itself. Because nothing is prescribed, the quality of the application matters, and a vague complaint about an unhappy marriage will not get far.
If there is violence, use the faster door
Where the danger is physical, this article is not the quickest protection available. The remedies against violence against women and their children are designed to act immediately and should be the first call, with the barangay, the police and a hospital record made while the evidence is fresh. Use this provision for what it is good at: bringing a pattern of neglect or damaging conduct before a court, supported by documents — bank and remittance records, messages, and people who have seen it.
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.
- Ma. Socorro Camacho-Reyes vs. Ramon Reyes, G.R. No. 185286, August 18, 2010 — read the decision on LawPhil →