Short answer. Yes. A notarial will must be acknowledged before a notary public, and not only by the person making it but by the attesting witnesses as well. A will that is merely signed and witnessed, without that acknowledgment, is defective. A purely handwritten will is the separate exception.
What the law says
Every will must be acknowledged before a notary public by the testator and the witnesses.
Civil Code, Article 806 — Acknowledgment Before a Notary. Read the full provision →
What the Civil Code actually requires
The rule is short and it is absolute in its terms: every will must be acknowledged before a notary public by the testator and the witnesses. Two things follow that people routinely get wrong. First, the notary's role is not optional polish added after the fact — it is part of how the document becomes a will at all. Second, the witnesses are not spectators. They must appear and acknowledge the instrument themselves, alongside the person making the will. A ceremony where the testator visits the notary alone, days later, with the witnesses' signatures already on the paper, does not satisfy what the article describes.
Acknowledgment is not the same as an oath or a signature
An acknowledgment is a declaration before the notary that the signature on the document is genuinely the signer's own and was placed there freely. It is a different act from swearing to the truth of contents, which is what an affidavit involves, and different again from simply signing in the notary's presence. Because the article speaks of acknowledgment specifically, a jurat or a bare notarial signature does not automatically supply what is missing. The notary is also relieved of any duty to keep a copy or lodge one with the Clerk of Court, so the family will normally hold the only copies — which is a practical reason to store the original carefully.
The handwritten will is the exception
This requirement governs the formal, typewritten, witnessed will. Philippine law also recognises a will written entirely in the maker's own hand, dated and signed by him, which needs neither witnesses nor a notary. That form is genuinely simpler, but it carries its own risk: because nothing external corroborates it, the whole document stands or falls on proof of the handwriting, and any interlineation or erasure the maker did not himself authenticate can become a battleground. Choosing the informal route to avoid a notary often just moves the difficulty to the people left behind.
What a missing acknowledgment costs
A will has no legal effect until a court allows it to probate, and the formalities are examined at that hearing. If the acknowledgment is absent or was not made by everyone the article names, the will may be denied probate — and if it is, the estate passes as though no will existed, under the rules on intestate succession. That can defeat the very arrangement the maker paid a lawyer to create: a chosen executor, a specific house left to a specific child, a legacy to someone outside the family. Fixing the defect is straightforward while the maker is alive and impossible once he is not, which is why a will worth writing is worth executing properly the first time.
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.
- Testate Estate of the Late Alipio Abada, et al. vs. Alipio Abaja, et al, G.R. No. 147145, January 31, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Ma. Estela Maglasang, et al. vs. The Heirs of Corazon Cabatingan, et al, G.R. No. 131953, June 5, 2002 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Heirs of Fedelina Sestoso Estella represented by Virgilia Estella Poliquit, et al. vs. Jesus, G.R. No. 245469, December 9, 2020 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Felix Azuela vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 122880, April 12, 2006 — read the decision on LawPhil →