Short answer. Yes, in a narrow case. If the residence of either party is so located that there is no means of transportation for that party to appear personally before the local civil registrar, the marriage may be solemnized without a license. The test is absence of transport, not inconvenience.

What the law says

If the residence of either party is so located that there is no means of transportation to enable such party to appear personally before the local civil registrar, the marriage may be solemnized without necessity of a marriage license.

Family Code, Article 28 — Marriage Where No Transportation Is Available. Read the full provision →

The exemption is about geography, not hardship

Article 28 excuses the license where a party's residence is so located that there is no means of transportation to enable such party to appear personally before the local civil registrar. The provision was written for genuinely isolated communities — places with no road, no regular boat, no way out at all for an ordinary person. It is not an allowance for a long or expensive journey, for a couple who work and cannot take the day off, or for a place cut off by a storm last week. If a means of transportation exists, the exemption does not.

Only one party needs to be isolated

The wording is either party, so it is enough that one of the two lives in such a place. That reflects how the application process works: each party files separately and each must appear personally, so the obstacle to one is an obstacle to the license. It also means the exemption is assessed by reference to residence rather than to where the ceremony happens. A couple who travel from an unreachable barangay to a city and marry there are not in the situation the article contemplates, because the party in question has plainly reached the outside world.

The officer must swear to the specifics

This exemption is not taken on trust. Article 29 requires the solemnizing officer to execute an affidavit stating that the residence of either party — specifying the barrio or barangay — is so located that there is no means of transportation to enable that party to appear personally before the registrar, and that he took the necessary steps to ascertain the parties' ages and relationship and the absence of legal impediment. Article 30 then requires the original affidavit and a legible copy of the marriage contract to be sent to the registrar of the municipality where the marriage was performed.

If the exemption did not really apply

The consequence of getting this wrong is severe rather than technical. Article 35 makes a marriage solemnized without a license void from the beginning, except for those the Code exempts — so a couple who relied on Article 28 when transport was in fact available have no license and no exemption. If you are considering this route, the honest question is whether an officer could truthfully swear the affidavit naming your barangay. If you are looking back at a marriage already celebrated this way, the affidavit on file is the document that will decide the question.

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.