Short answer. Each of the three children gets one-third. Article 846 of the Civil Code provides a straightforward rule: heirs instituted without designation of shares shall inherit in equal parts. The absence of individual percentages in the will does not create ambiguity — the law fills the gap by dividing equally.
What the law says
Heirs instituted without designation of shares shall inherit in equal parts.
Civil Code, Article 846 — Equal Shares When Unspecified. Read the full provision →
Equal division is the default rule
When a testator names heirs in a will but does not specify what fraction each one receives, the Civil Code supplies the answer. Article 846 states simply: heirs instituted without designation of shares shall inherit in equal parts. In your father's case, three children are named collectively as heirs of the entire estate. Without any individual share stated for any of them, each takes one-third. This rule is automatic and requires no further interpretation or negotiation among the heirs.
Why the law has this rule
Testators sometimes write wills that name their heirs collectively without specifying percentages — either because they intend equal division and see no reason to state it, or because they simply did not think to specify. Article 846 resolves any uncertainty about such wills by treating the unnamed division as equal. Without this default rule, every collectively worded institution would require the heirs to go to court to determine their shares, which would be wasteful and contentious. The law presumes that a testator who named heirs collectively without distinction intended equality.
When this rule interacts with other provisions
The equal-shares default applies to the portion of the estate the heirs are instituted to receive. However, the will still operates within the limits set by compulsory heirship. If any of the children is a compulsory heir, their legitime — the mandatory minimum share — cannot be reduced by the will. If the estate includes compulsory heirs who are not all named in the will, the portion available for free disposition may need to be separated first before applying the equal-division rule to the instituted heirs. The overall distribution depends on the full composition of the estate and all the heirs involved.
Practical steps in settling the estate
In practice, the three children will need to agree on how to carry out the equal partition — whether to divide specific assets, sell everything and split the proceeds, or arrange some combination. If the estate includes real property, a formal deed of extrajudicial settlement or a court-supervised partition may be required, depending on the circumstances. Equal shares in theory are sometimes harder to implement in practice when the assets are not easily divisible. A lawyer can help the heirs reach a workable arrangement that honours each child's equal one-third while making the estate settlement move forward.