Short answer. Legitimate children and descendants are together entitled to one-half of the parent's hereditary estate as their legitime, a share no will can take away. That half is then divided among them equally. The remaining half is at the parent's free disposal, but it is reduced by the shares owed to any illegitimate children and the surviving spouse.

What the law says

The legitime of legitimate children and descendants consists of one-half of the hereditary estate of the father and of the mother.

Civil Code, Article 888 — Legitime of Legitimate Children. Read the full provision →

The half that a will cannot touch

Article 888 sets the legitime of legitimate children and descendants at one-half of the hereditary estate of the father and of the mother. This half is reserved to the children by law; a parent cannot write a will that gives it all away to someone else, or that leaves the children less. If a will tries to do that, the children can demand the legitime regardless of the will's actual wording. Where there is more than one legitimate child, this reserved half is shared among them equally, since Article 888 speaks of the legitime belonging to the children and descendants collectively.

Why this figure is no longer the whole picture

Article 888 was written for a Civil Code that classified children into several categories with different shares. That classification no longer controls. The Family Code has since fixed the legitime of each illegitimate child at one-half of what a legitimate child receives, while leaving the rest of the Civil Code's succession rules — including the one-half legitime for legitimate children stated here — in force. The Family Code also did away with the Civil Code's older sub-categories of illegitimate children, replacing them with a single class.

What that means for the actual division today

In practice, this means the legitimate children's one-half legitime is still the correct starting figure, but it is no longer safe to assume the parent's remaining half goes untouched to whoever the will names. If the parent also left illegitimate children, each of them is currently entitled to a share equal to half of a legitimate child's share, and that share is taken out of the estate before what remains can be treated as freely disposable. A surviving spouse's rights work the same way — they cut into the second half, not the reserved one.

The practical takeaway for a family working this out

Anyone dividing an estate under this article should treat one-half to the legitimate children as the floor, not the whole calculation. The actual amount each legitimate child ends up with depends on how many legitimate children there are, and the second half depends on who else — illegitimate children, a surviving spouse — is also entitled to a share under the rules now in force. Reading Article 888 alone, as if the 1950 classification of children still applied, will understate what other heirs are owed and can make a distribution look final when it is not.

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.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.