Short answer. Eighteen. The Family Code gives legal capacity to marry to any male or female aged eighteen or over who is not under one of the impediments the Code lists separately. Below eighteen there is no capacity at all, and parental consent cannot supply it.
What the law says
Any male or female of the age of eighteen years or upwards not under any of the impediments mentioned in Articles 37 and 38, may contract marriage.
Family Code, Article 5 — Legal Capacity to Marry. Read the full provision →
Eighteen is a floor, not a default that consent can lower
Article 5 of the Family Code states the rule in a single sentence: Any male or female of the age of eighteen years or upwards may contract marriage. The age is a component of legal capacity itself, which is why no one else can supply it. Parents cannot consent a seventeen-year-old into capacity, and a solemnizing officer who proceeds anyway does not cure the defect. This is different from the separate requirement that parties between eighteen and twenty-one obtain parental consent — that group already has capacity, and consent goes to a different question.
Age is necessary but not sufficient
The provision qualifies the age with a second condition: the party must also be not under any of the impediments mentioned in Articles 37 and 38. Those articles deal with marriages between relatives — by blood in the ascending and descending line and between certain collateral relatives, and a further list of relationships the law treats as void on grounds of public policy. So being eighteen answers only the capacity-by-age question. A party of full age who falls within one of those relationships still cannot validly marry, and the marriage would be void rather than merely voidable.
Why the eighteen-year line matters after the wedding
The consequence of marrying below eighteen is not a fine or a delay but nullity: the Family Code treats such a marriage as void from the beginning, even where parents or guardians consented. That has knock-on effects on property, on the status of children, and on whether either party is free to marry someone else later. If a marriage in your family was celebrated when one of the parties was under eighteen, the birth certificate and the marriage certificate are the two documents that settle the question, and it is worth having them checked rather than assuming the passage of years has fixed anything.
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.
- Sister Pilar Versoza vs. People of the Philippines, Michelina S. Aguirre-Olondriz, Pedro Aguirre, G.R. No. 184535, September 3, 2019 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Raquel G. Kho vs. Republic of the Philippines vs. Veronica B. Kho, G.R. No. 187462, June 1, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Veronica Cabacungan Alcazar vs. Rey C. Alcazar, G.R. No. 174451, October 13, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Veronico Tenebro vs. The Hon. Court of Appeals, G.R. No. 150758, February 18, 2004 — read the decision on LawPhil →