Short answer. Five years, counted not from the wedding but from the time the force, intimidation or undue influence disappeared or ceased. Only the injured party may file. If the pressure carried on for years after the ceremony, the clock did not start until it stopped.
What the law says
(4) For causes mentioned in number 4 of Article 45, by the injured party, within five years from the time the force, intimidation or undue influence disappeared or ceased;
Family Code, Article 47 — Who May File; Prescriptive Periods. Read the full provision →
The clock starts when the pressure ends
Most of the annulment periods run from the marriage. This one does not: it runs from the time the force, intimidation or undue influence disappeared or ceased. The law assumes that someone still under threat cannot realistically go to court, so it does not count that time against them. A woman married under duress at nineteen who was kept under the same pressure until she was thirty is not out of time; her five years began when the pressure ended, whenever that was.
When it ceased is a question of fact
Because everything turns on that date, it is usually the contested point. Ceasing is not a formality; it is the moment the coercion stopped operating on you. Leaving the household, the death or imprisonment of the person making the threats, moving beyond their reach, or getting a court protection order are the kinds of events that mark it. Intimidation that softened but continued has not ceased. Set out the sequence of events honestly and in order, with dates, because a lawyer has to identify a point on that line and defend it.
Only the injured party may file
The clause gives the action to the injured party and nobody else. A parent, a sibling or a concerned relative cannot bring it for you, however clearly they saw what happened. There is also a separate limit worth knowing about before you count the years: if, once free of the pressure, you freely lived with your spouse as husband and wife, the marriage is treated as accepted and the ground is lost. The five years is the outer boundary, not a guarantee that the ground survives inside it.
If the danger has not passed
An annulment case is slow and it is not a protective measure. If you are still being threatened, the immediate question is safety and the protective remedies available for that, not the marriage; the annulment period has not even begun to run while the coercion continues. When you do speak to a lawyer, bring anything that fixes dates — police blotter entries, medical records, messages, the addresses you lived at and when you moved. Those documents do double duty here, proving both the coercion and when it ended.
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.
- Engrace Niñal, et al. vs. Norma Bayadog, G.R. No. 133778, March 14, 2000 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Maria Lina P. Quirit-Figarido vs. Edwin L. Figarido, G.R. No. 259520, November 5,2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →