Short answer. Yes. If the will is contested, all subscribing witnesses present in the Philippines and sane, and the notary for civil-code wills, must be produced and examined, or their death, absence, or insanity satisfactorily shown; those outside the filing province must instead be deposed.

What the law says

If the will is contested, all the subscribing witnesses, and the notary in the case of wills executed under the Civil Code of the Philippines, if present in the Philippines, and not insane, must be produced and examined, and the death, absence, or insanity of any of them must be satisfactorily shown to the court. If all or some of such witnesses are present in the Philippines but outside the province where the will has been filed, their deposition must be taken.

Rule 76, Section 11 — Subscribing witnesses produced or accounted for where will contested. Read the full provision →

Contest raises the bar

An uncontested will can be probated on relatively light proof, but a contest changes the requirement significantly. Every subscribing witness, and the notary in the case of a civil-code will, must be produced and examined if present in the Philippines and sane; if any of them cannot be produced, their death, absence, or insanity must be satisfactorily shown to the court rather than simply asserted.

The notary's role in civil-code wills

The requirement to produce and examine witnesses is not limited to the subscribing witnesses alone. For wills executed under the Civil Code of the Philippines, the notary who notarized the will must also be produced and examined if present in the Philippines and sane, on the same terms as the subscribing witnesses. This reflects the notary's own role in the execution of that type of will, distinct from wills executed under other applicable law, where no notary plays that same part.

Showing death, absence, or insanity

When a subscribing witness or the notary cannot be produced, the rule does not allow the proponent to simply state that fact and move on. The death, absence, or insanity of that witness must be satisfactorily shown to the court — meaning actual proof of the reason for non-production, not a bare assertion. This safeguard exists because a contest already puts the will's validity in dispute, so the court needs more than the proponent's word that a witness is genuinely unavailable before proceeding without that witness's testimony.

Witnesses outside the filing province

Witnesses who are present in the Philippines but live outside the province where the will was filed are not exempted from this requirement, but their testimony is taken by deposition instead of live examination in the courtroom where the case is pending, balancing the thoroughness the contest demands against the practical difficulty of travel. This deposition route applies only to witnesses who remain within the Philippines; it is a location-based accommodation for the burden of travel between provinces, not a broader exemption from being questioned at all. The witness must still be sane and available to be deposed — the same underlying conditions that apply to witnesses examined live in the province where the will was filed.

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.