Short answer. Yes, but only the net fruits. Article 117 makes the net fruits from the exclusive property of each spouse conjugal partnership property. Your premarital property itself stays yours, but what it nets after expenses during the marriage becomes part of the conjugal partnership.
What the law says
The fruits, natural, industrial, or civil, due or received during the marriage from the common property, as well as the net fruits from the exclusive property of each spouse
Family Code, Article 117 — What Are Conjugal Partnership Properties. Read the full provision →
The property stays yours; its net fruits do not
Article 117 draws a distinction that matters directly to your question: it lists as conjugal partnership property the fruits, natural, industrial, or civil, due or received during the marriage from the common property, as well as the net fruits from the exclusive property of each spouse. Notice the article does not touch the ownership of the exclusive property itself — the land, business, or asset you brought into the marriage remains yours. What it reaches is the income that property produces during the marriage.
'Net' fruits, not gross income
The article specifically says net fruits, not simply fruits or gross income. This means whatever expenses are properly chargeable against the property's production — maintenance costs, taxes, and similar outlays tied to generating that income — are accounted for first, and what becomes conjugal is what remains after that. Gross rental income before deducting legitimate expenses is not automatically the figure treated as conjugal; the net figure is what the article actually reaches.
Three kinds of fruits are all covered
The provision covers natural, industrial, or civil fruits without distinction, meaning it applies broadly to whatever form the return takes — produce from land, output from a business you owned before marriage, or income like rent and interest. Regardless of which category your particular income falls under, the same rule applies: it is the net fruit from your exclusive property that becomes conjugal, and the underlying asset generating it does not change ownership.
Why this rule exists and what it means for you
The conjugal partnership of gains is built around the idea that a couple shares in what is gained during the marriage, even while each spouse's premarital property remains separately owned. Treating the net fruits of exclusive property as conjugal reflects that gains earned during the marriage — regardless of which spouse's asset produced them — are meant to be shared, while the capital asset itself is preserved as exclusive property that would be returned to you, not divided, upon liquidation of the partnership.
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.
- Noel Buenaventura vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 127358, March 31, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Government Service Insurance System vs. Milagros O. Montesclaros, G.R. No. 146494, July 14, 2004 — read the decision on LawPhil →