Short answer. Only if he authenticated it with his full signature. Article 814 requires that any insertion, cancellation, erasure or alteration in a holographic will be authenticated by the testator's full signature. An unsigned change does not take effect, and what follows depends on what exactly was altered.
What the law says
In case of any insertion, cancellation, erasure or alteration in a holographic will, the testator must authenticate the same by his full signature.
Civil Code, Article 814 — Corrections Must Be Authenticated. Read the full provision →
Four kinds of change, one requirement
The article covers the whole range of second thoughts: in case of any insertion, cancellation, erasure or alteration in a holographic will, the testator must authenticate the same by his full signature. Crossing out a name is a cancellation; writing another in its place is an insertion; done together they are an alteration. Whichever label fits, the requirement is identical and it is not satisfied by the change being unmistakably in the testator's own hand. Handwriting proves who made the mark. The signature proves he meant it to stand as part of his will, which is a different question.
"Full signature" means what it says
This is where these changes usually fail. Initials beside the crossing-out are not a full signature. Nor is a date written in the margin, a thumbmark, a paraph, or the signature that already appears at the end of the will — that one authenticated the document as it stood when it was signed, not an amendment made afterwards. The testator has to sign the alteration itself, the way he would sign his name in full. Because the requirement is so specific, the point is often decided by looking at the document rather than by argument about intention.
If the change was not authenticated
An unauthenticated alteration does not acquire legal effect, so it ordinarily leaves the disposition as it was written before the change was made — the crossing-out fails, and the original name stands rather than the substituted one. That result surprises families, who tend to assume that a scratched-out name at least cancels the gift even if the replacement fails. Where the alteration touches something the will cannot do without, such as the date or the testator's own signature, more than a single disposition may be at stake, and the document has to be assessed as a whole rather than clause by clause.
Do not tidy the original
The instinct to produce a clean copy is the worst thing that can happen to a holographic will. Keep the paper exactly as it is, in the state the testator left it, and resist annotating, taping, retyping or re-folding it — the physical document is the evidence, and the ink, the spacing and the sequence of marks are part of what will be examined. Photograph it before anyone handles it further. Then have the original examined against this article before the will is presented, because the answer here turns on the page rather than on anybody's recollection.
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.
- In the Matter of the Allowance of the Will of Moises F. Banayad Apolonia Banayad Frianela vs. Servillano Banayad, Jr, G.R. No. 169700, July 30, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →