Short answer. No. Even if your first marriage was clearly void, Philippine law does not let you decide that yourself. You need a final court judgment declaring it void before you may validly remarry. Skip that step and you risk a bigamy charge, whatever the true status of the first marriage turns out to be.
What the law says
The absolute nullity of a previous marriage may be invoked for purposes of remarriage on the basis solely of a final judgment declaring such previous marriage void.
Family Code, Article 40 — Judicial Declaration Before Remarriage. Read the full provision →
A court judgment, not your own conclusion
Article 40 of the Family Code says nullity may be invoked for purposes of remarriage only on the basis of a final judgment declaring the earlier marriage void. That applies even when the reason looks obvious to you — a missing marriage license, an already-married spouse, a forged consent. It does not matter how clear the defect is; without the judgment, the law still treats the first marriage as subsisting for purposes of a second wedding.
The real risk of skipping it
Remarrying without that judgment exposes you to a bigamy charge, and the exposure does not end there. A second ceremony gone through without the legal requirements for a valid marriage can attract liability of its own, separate from bigamy. Someone who escapes the bigamy charge because the second wedding was defective may find that the defect is itself the problem. Skipping the judgment does not create one risk. It creates several, and they do not cancel each other out.
A defense at trial is not a plan
It is sometimes possible to avoid a bigamy conviction by proving, inside the criminal case itself, that the first marriage was void for want of an essential requirement — that no licence was ever issued for it, for instance. But look at what that route involves: being charged, arraigned and tried first, and staking the outcome on documentary evidence you may not be able to obtain many years later. It is an outcome some accused do reach. It is not a plan anyone should choose.
Get the judgment before, not after
The required order of operations is to obtain the judicial declaration first and remarry after. Philippine courts can declare a marriage void even where it was celebrated abroad or involves a foreign spouse, so distance is rarely the obstacle people assume it to be. The remedy exists precisely so that your marital history is settled in a civil proceeding brought for that purpose — instead of being argued to a criminal court after you have already been charged.
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.
- Luisito G. Pulido vs. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 220149, July 27, 2021 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Vincent Paul G. Mercado vs. Consuelo Tan, G.R. No. 137110, August 1, 2000 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Salvador S. Abunado, et al. vs. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 159218, March 30, 2004 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Noel A. Lasanas vs. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 159031, June 23, 2014 — read the decision on LawPhil →