Short answer. Yes. Article 33 of the Family Code allows marriages among members of ethnic cultural communities, just like marriages among Muslims, to be performed validly without a marriage license, as long as the marriage is solemnized according to their own customs, rites, or practices.
What the law says
Marriages among Muslims or among members of the ethnic cultural communities may be performed validly without the necessity of marriage license, provided they are solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites or practices.
Family Code, Article 33 — Marriages Among Muslims and Ethnic Cultural Communities. Read the full provision →
The license exception in full
Article 33 of the Family Code creates a specific exception to the usual rule that a marriage license is required before a wedding can take place. It provides that marriages among Muslims or among members of the ethnic cultural communities may be performed validly without the necessity of marriage license, provided they are solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites or practices. The exception is not limited to Muslim Filipinos — it applies equally to members of the country's ethnic cultural communities, recognizing that both groups have long-standing marriage customs of their own that predate, and operate independently of, the license requirement written for marriages generally.
The condition attached to the exception
The exemption from the license requirement is not unconditional. Article 33 only validates a license-free marriage if it is solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites or practices — meaning the ceremony has to actually follow the recognized customary form of the community involved, not simply be performed by someone claiming membership in it. A wedding that skips both the civil marriage license and any recognizable customary rite would not fall within what Article 33 protects; the exception trades the license requirement for compliance with a real customary practice, it does not remove formality altogether.
Why the law carves out this exception
The exception exists because Philippine law recognizes that Muslim Filipinos and members of ethnic cultural communities have their own marriage systems, developed under their own customs and, for Muslim Filipinos, further governed by their own body of personal law. Requiring these communities to additionally secure a civil marriage license before their customary marriage could take effect would have layered an outside formality on top of practices that already function as valid, recognized ways of marrying within those communities. Article 33 lets the customary ceremony itself stand in for the license.
What the exception does not change
Article 33 removes the license requirement specifically — it does not exempt a marriage from every other requirement of a valid marriage, such as the parties having the legal capacity to marry each other in the first place. Someone relying on this exception should also expect that proving the marriage later, for purposes like registration or inheritance, will depend on being able to show that the customary rite genuinely took place, since there is no license on file the way there would be for a marriage solemnized under the ordinary rule.