If one of my two solidary creditors agrees to cancel my debt to him, does that release me from paying the other creditor too?

One creditor's act binds the whole group

Article 1215 provides that Novation, compensation, confusion or remission of the debt, made by any of the solidary creditors or with any of the solidary debtors, shall extinguish the obligation. It does not extinguish only the acting creditor's portion. The premise of active solidarity is that each creditor holds the entire credit, so each of them can do to the whole credit what an ordinary sole creditor could do to his own. That is the risk the creditors accepted when they took the debt in solidary form. The counterweight is in the same article: The creditor who may have executed any of these acts, as well as he who collects the debt, shall be liable to the others for the share in the obligation corresponding to them.

The four acts it covers

Remission is the condonation of the debt, a gratuitous release described in Article 1231 as one of the modes by which obligations are extinguished. Compensation, under Article 1278, operates where two persons are in their own right creditors and debtors of each other, and the debts cancel to the extent they concur. Confusion or merger, under Article 1275, extinguishes the obligation from the time the characters of creditor and debtor meet in the same person. Novation, under Article 1291, modifies an obligation by changing its object or principal conditions, substituting the debtor, or subrogating a third person in the creditor's rights. Any of the four, done by one solidary creditor, ends the obligation.

The premise you must check first

All of this assumes the two creditors really are solidary. Article 1207 makes solidarity the exception rather than the rule: it exists only when the obligation expressly so states, or when the law or the nature of the obligation requires it. If they are merely joint creditors, Article 1208 presumes the credit divided into as many distinct shares as there are creditors, and a release given by one of them wipes out his share alone. The other half remains fully collectible. So the same conversation with the same creditor produces opposite outcomes depending on a clause in the instrument that created the debt.

Get the release in writing

A cancellation you cannot prove is worth very little when the second creditor sues. Article 1270 provides that condonation or remission is essentially gratuitous and requires acceptance by the obligor, that it may be made expressly or impliedly, and that express condonation must comply with the forms of donation. Article 1271 adds that voluntary delivery of a private document evidencing a credit by the creditor to the debtor implies renunciation of his action. So ask for a signed release or quitclaim, and recover the original promissory note or loan document if there is one.

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.

• Benedicto V. Yujuico vs. Far East Bank and Trust Company, G.R. No. 186196, August 15, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →
• Roxaco-Asia Hospitality Corporation vs. Gulf Canary Contruction and Development, Inc. and Asia United Insurance, Inc, G.R. No. 246250, September 29, 2025 — read the decision on LawPhil →
• Great Asian Sales Center Corporation, et al. vs. The Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 105774, April 25, 2002 — read the decision on LawPhil →

Related provisions

• Civil Code, Article 1215 — Novation, Compensation, Confusion, Remission by a Solidary Party
• Civil Code, Article 1207 — Joint and Solidary Liability Defined
• Civil Code, Article 1270 — Condonation or Remission
• Civil Code, Article 1271 — Delivery of the Credit Document