Short answer. Yes, but only if both conditions hold: continuous cohabitation as husband and wife for at least five years, and no legal impediment between you the entire time — for instance, neither of you married to someone else during that period. You must also sign a sworn affidavit stating these facts before the wedding.
What the law says
No license shall be necessary for the marriage of a man and a woman who have lived together as husband and wife for at least five years and without any legal impediment to marry each other.
Family Code, Article 34 — Marriage Without a License After Five Years' Cohabitation. Read the full provision →
Two conditions, both strict
Article 34 exempts a couple from the marriage-license requirement only where they have lived together as husband and wife for at least five years and had no legal impediment to marry each other throughout that time. The five years must be continuous cohabitation as a couple, not an on-and-off relationship, and the impediment-free requirement is absolute — if either of you was legally married to someone else for any part of those five years, the exemption does not apply, no matter how long you eventually lived together afterward.
The affidavit is not a formality
The law requires the couple to state these facts — the five years of cohabitation and the absence of any impediment — in a sworn affidavit before the wedding, and the solemnizing officer must likewise state under oath that the parties' qualifications were checked and no impediment was found. Courts treat these statements as substantive, not paperwork to sign without thought, because the affidavit is what stands in for the license the couple is skipping.
When it goes wrong: the marriage is void, not just irregular
Getting this wrong does not produce a merely irregular marriage — it produces a void one. The exemption applies only where the five years of cohabitation are genuine, exclusive, and immediately before the marriage, and where the parties were legally capacitated to marry each other throughout that time. If the cohabitation cannot be established on those terms, the exemption never applied, the marriage went ahead without a licence it actually needed, and it is void from the beginning. That consequence tends to surface years later, in an inheritance dispute, when it is far too late to correct.
Why the honest answer matters here
Because a defective Article 34 affidavit produces a void marriage rather than a voidable one, this is not a box to check quickly at the civil registrar's counter. If there is any real doubt about whether you cohabited continuously for the full five years, or whether either of you had an outstanding impediment at any point during that stretch, that doubt is exactly the kind of fact-specific question a lawyer should look at before the affidavit is signed, not after a marriage's validity is challenged years later.
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.
- Leonila G. Santiago vs. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 200233, July 15, 2015 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Flora L. Tubera-balintec vs. Heirs of Cesar L. Tubera, G.R. No. 235701, February 15, 2023 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Rommel Genio y Santos vs. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 261666, January 24, 2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Sue Ann Bounsit-Torralba vs. Joseph B. Torralba Republic Of The Philippines, Oppositor-, G.R. No. 214392, December 7,2022 — read the decision on LawPhil →