Short answer. Yes, if you are indigent. The Family Code says the license is issued free of charge to parties who have no visible means of income, or whose income is insufficient for their subsistence, and that fact is established by their own affidavit or by their oath before the local civil registrar.
What the law says
It shall, however, be issued free of charge to indigent parties, that is those who have no visible means of income or whose income is insufficient for their subsistence a fact established by their affidavit, or by their oath before the local civil registrar.
Family Code, Article 19 — Marriage License Fees; Exemption for Indigents. Read the full provision →
Who counts as indigent
Article 19 supplies its own definition rather than leaving it to the registrar's judgement. Indigent parties are those who have no visible means of income or whose income is insufficient for their subsistence. The second limb is the one most people overlook: you do not have to be jobless. A couple who both work but whose combined earnings do not cover subsistence fall squarely within the wording. The test is about what the income actually does, not about whether a person appears employed, and nothing in the article ties it to a fixed peso figure or to membership in any programme.
How you prove it
The proof required is deliberately light: the fact is established by their affidavit, or by their oath before the local civil registrar. Your own sworn statement is the evidence. The article does not call for a certificate of indigency from a barangay, a social welfare assessment, or payslips, and the registrar's separate duty is to prepare the documents and administer the oaths without charge. That said, an affidavit is sworn, so the statement in it has to be true. Understating a household's income to avoid a fee is a false oath, not a minor economy.
The article also caps what may be collected
The exemption sits inside a broader rule about money. The registrar shall require the payment of the fees prescribed by law or regulations — meaning fees that have actually been prescribed — and then the article shuts the door on anything else: No other sum shall be collected in the nature of a fee or tax of any kind for the issuance of said license. So a paying couple is protected too. If you are asked for an amount that is not a prescribed fee, the article is what you point to, whether or not you qualify as indigent.
What the exemption does not reach
Read the article for what it says: it exempts the issuance of the marriage license. It does not speak to what a church, a judge's office, a venue or a photographer may charge, nor to the cost of copies of civil registry records you obtain later from other offices. Couples are sometimes told the whole wedding is free once they are declared indigent, and that is not what the provision does. If cost is the obstacle, deal with the license under this article and treat the ceremony as a separate budget, asking each office in advance what it prescribes and on what authority.
Related provisions
- Family Code, Article 19 — Marriage License Fees; Exemption for Indigents
- Family Code, Article 24 — Registrar's Duty to Prepare Documents; Tax Exemption