Short answer. Yes. Article 979 states that an adopted child succeeds to the property of the adopting parents in the same manner as a legitimate child. Once adoption is complete, the child is placed on the same footing as a biological legitimate child for purposes of inheriting from the adopting parents, with no lesser share because the relationship began through adoption.
What the law says
Legitimate children and their descendants succeed the parents and other ascendants, without distinction as to sex or age, and even if they should come from different marriages. An adopted child succeeds to the property of the adopting parents in the same manner as a legitimate child.
Civil Code, Article 979 — Legitimate Children and Descendants. Read the full provision →
Equal standing by the statute's own words
Article 979 addresses legitimate children generally first, saying they succeed their parents and ascendants without distinction as to sex or age, and then extends the same rule to adopted children directly: an adopted child succeeds to the property of the adopting parents in the same manner as a legitimate child. That is not a lesser or parallel right — it is the identical right a biological legitimate child holds, placed in the same article and stated in the same terms.
What 'in the same manner' covers
Because the adopted child succeeds in the same manner, the share computed for that child sits alongside the shares of any biological legitimate children as an equal, not a lesser, claim against the adopting parent's estate. The relationship created by adoption is treated, for this purpose, as functionally equivalent to the relationship created by birth. Nothing in the article suggests a reduced portion, a subordinate ranking behind biological children, or any need for the will or the estate proceeding to spell out the adopted child's entitlement separately — the article already supplies it.
What this does not decide
Article 979 speaks to succession from the adopting parent to the child. It does not, by its own terms, address the reverse — what an adopting parent might inherit from the child — or how an adopted child's rights interact with a biological parent's estate, which is a separate relationship governed by its own rules. Anyone working through an actual estate that includes an adopted child should treat this article as settling the specific question it answers: equal succession rights from the adopting parents, not the full map of every inheritance question adoption can raise.
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.
- Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative vs. Gynthia Gertrudes Andres-Ranjo, Elma Andres Maran On, Represented By Her Husband, William G. Maranon, G.R. No. 200544, August 17, 2022 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- The Roman Catholic Bishop of Tuguegarao vs. Florentina Prudencio, et al, G.R. No. 187942, September 7, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Napoleon D. Neri, et al. vs. Heirs of Hadji Yusop Uy and Julpha Ibrahim Uy, G.R. No. 194366, October 10, 2012 — read the decision on LawPhil →