Short answer. The death certificate of your deceased spouse, furnished to the registrar in place of the birth or baptismal certificate. If the death certificate cannot be secured, the Code lets you execute an affidavit stating that circumstance, your actual civil status, and the name and date of death of your late spouse.

What the law says

In case either of the contracting parties has been previously married, the applicant shall be required to furnish, instead of the birth or baptismal certificate required in the last preceding article, the death certificate of the deceased spouse or the judicial decree of the absolute divorce, or the judicial decree of annulment or declaration of nullity of his or her previous marriage.

Family Code, Article 13 — Proof Required When a Party Was Previously Married. Read the full provision →

The document replaces the birth certificate, it does not sit beside it

A first-time applicant supports the application with a birth or baptismal certificate. Article 13 says that a previously married applicant furnishes, instead of the birth or baptismal certificate, proof that the earlier marriage is over. The three accepted proofs are listed in the same breath: the death certificate of the deceased spouse or the judicial decree of the absolute divorce, or the judicial decree of annulment or declaration of nullity. All three share a feature worth noticing — each is a document issued by an authority, recording an event or a court's conclusion. None of them is something the applicant produces on their own say-so.

The affidavit is a narrow fallback, not a shortcut

The article then allows for the case where the record simply cannot be obtained: In case the death certificate cannot be secured, the party shall make an affidavit setting forth this circumstance and his or her actual civil status and the name and date of death of the deceased spouse. Read the trigger carefully. It is that the certificate cannot be secured — a death abroad with no local registration, a destroyed registry, a death never reported. It is not an option for an applicant who would rather not go and get one, and the affidavit must state the circumstance itself, so the reason has to be a real one you are prepared to swear to.

A missing spouse is a completely different problem

The commonest mistake is to treat a spouse who disappeared years ago as a spouse who died. Article 13 has no route for that, because there is nothing to certify: no death was recorded and none can be. The Family Code deals with absent spouses separately, through Article 41, which allows a subsequent marriage only after the present spouse obtains a judicial declaration of presumptive death, and only where the absence has lasted the period the article requires and the spouse present has a well-founded belief that the absentee is dead. Without that declaration a new marriage is not merely irregular.

What to gather before you go

For a widow or widower the task is usually straightforward: request a certified copy of the death certificate from the civil registry of the place where the death was registered, and bring your own identification and the marriage certificate of the earlier marriage. If the death happened overseas, start with the record kept by the Philippine post that has consular jurisdiction over the place, and expect this to take longer than the rest of the application. If no record exists anywhere, do not draft the affidavit yourself — that document is sworn evidence about a civil status, and it is worth a lawyer's eye first.

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.

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.