Short answer. The Family Code's own default. Article 74 sets an order: marriage settlements first, then the provisions of the Code, then local custom. With no settlement you skip straight to the Code, and Article 75 supplies absolute community of property as the regime that governs the marriage.
What the law says
The property relationship between husband and wife shall be governed in the following order: (1) By marriage settlements executed before the marriage; (2) By the provisions of this Code; and (3) By the local custom.
Family Code, Article 74 — Order Governing Property Relations. Read the full provision →
What the law says
In the absence of a marriage settlement, or when the regime agreed upon is void, the system of absolute community of property as established in this Code shall govern.
Family Code, Article 75 — Choosing the Property Regime in Marriage Settlements. Read the full provision →
An order of sources, not a menu
Article 74 is a ranking. Marriage settlements executed before the marriage come first; the provisions of the Code come second; local custom comes last. Each level is reached only because the one above it is silent, which is why a couple without a prenuptial agreement never gets to argue about custom or about what their families expected. They land at level two, and the Code answers. The sequence also explains why a settlement made after the wedding is not simply a late entry at level one — the article describes settlements executed before the marriage, and a document that does not fit that description does not occupy the top of the order.
What the Code supplies when nobody chose
Article 75 lets future spouses choose absolute community, conjugal partnership of gains, complete separation of property, or any other regime. Then it fills the gap: in the absence of a marriage settlement, or where the regime agreed upon is void, the system of absolute community of property governs. Note the second limb. A couple who did sign something can still end up in the default, because a settlement that is void for form or content leaves them exactly where a couple who signed nothing would be. The default is not a penalty for inaction; it is the Code's considered answer for every marriage that does not validly opt out.
What absolute community actually means day to day
Absolute community is the most sharing of the available regimes. It commences at the precise moment the marriage is celebrated, and any stipulation for it to begin at some other time is void — there is no grace period and no arrangement that starts the clock at the first anniversary or when a house is bought. The practical consequence people underestimate is that the regime does not only govern what is earned during the marriage. Its reach and its exceptions are matters the Code sets out in detail, and both spouses' pre-marriage assets are part of the analysis rather than automatically outside it.
If you want something different
The realistic answer for an already-married couple is that the window for choosing has closed. A marriage settlement is a pre-wedding instrument, and the Code does not treat a post-wedding agreement between spouses as an equivalent substitute; the routes out of a regime after marriage are court-supervised and require grounds. So the useful step now is not to draft an agreement but to find out what you actually have: the date of the marriage, whether any settlement was executed and registered, and how each significant asset was acquired and titled. Those three facts determine the regime, and the regime determines everything else.
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.
- David A. Noveras vs. Leticia T. Noveras AM. No. P-06-2227 August 19, 2014 Office of the Court Administrator vs. Atty. Mario N. Melchor, Former Clerk of Court VI, RTC, Br. 16, Naval, Biliran (now Presiding Judge, MCTC, Calubian-San Isidro, Leyte), G.R. No. 188289, August 20, 2014 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 74 — Order Governing Property Relations
- Family Code, Article 75 — Choosing the Property Regime in Marriage Settlements