Short answer. Yes. What matters is your capacity at the moment you made the donation, not afterwards. Article 737 says the donor's capacity is determined as of the time of the making of the donation, so becoming incapacitated later does not undo a gift you validly made while able.
What the law says
The donor's capacity shall be determined as of the time of the making of the donation.
Civil Code, Article 737 — When Donor's Capacity Is Measured. Read the full provision →
Capacity is frozen at the moment of the gift
Article 737 fixes a single point in time for judging whether you were legally able to give: the donor's capacity shall be determined as of the time of the making of the donation. If you had the ability to give away your property on the day you made the donation, the gift is good. A change in your mental or physical condition after that day does not reach back and unmake it. The law deliberately picks one date so that a completed donation does not stay hostage to everything that happens to the donor for the rest of his life.
Why later incapacity does not matter
Once a donation is perfected, ownership has already begun to move. Reopening the question of capacity every time the donor's health later declines would leave donees, buyers and heirs unable to rely on any completed gift. Article 737 avoids that by testing capacity once, at the making. So if you were of sound mind and legally capable when you signed, a stroke, dementia or a later guardianship does not turn a valid donation into a void one. The gift stands on the state of affairs that existed when it was made.
What the rule does not fix
This rule only settles the timing of the capacity test. It does not cure a donation that was already defective at the making — for instance, if you lacked capacity or were pressured on that very day, the gift can still be attacked, because the problem existed at the controlling moment. Nor does Article 737 excuse the formalities a donation needs to be valid, such as the form required for real property. It answers one question only: which moment counts. Everything that made the donation good or bad is judged as of that moment.
If your capacity at the time is disputed
Because everything turns on your condition on the day of the donation, that day is where any dispute will focus. Someone challenging the gift would have to show you lacked capacity then, not merely that you lost it afterward. Medical records, the circumstances of signing and the testimony of those present around that date become the evidence that decides it. If you are planning to give property and worry your health may later be questioned, keeping clear proof of your capacity at the time of giving is the practical protection Article 737 points you toward.
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.
- The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Fatima (Peach Sisters of Laguna), represented by Rev. Mother Ma. Concepcion R. Realon, et al. vs. Amando V. Alzona, et al, G.R. No. 224307, August 6, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Heirs of William Sevilla, et al. vs. Leopoldo Sevilla, et al, G.R. No. 150179, April 30, 2003 — read the decision on LawPhil →