Short answer. Not on the reappearance alone. A subsequent marriage contracted after a judicial declaration of presumptive death is terminated by the recording of an affidavit of reappearance in the civil registry. Until that sworn statement is recorded, the second marriage stands.
What the law says
The subsequent marriage referred to in the preceding Article shall be automatically terminated by the recording of the affidavit of reappearance of the absent spouse, unless there is a judgment annulling the previous marriage or declaring it void ab initio.
Family Code, Article 42 — Reappearance of the Absent Spouse. Read the full provision →
The trigger is the recording, not the reappearance
The wording repays close reading. The subsequent marriage shall be automatically terminated by the recording of the affidavit of reappearance. Two things follow. First, the missing spouse walking back into town, however public the event, changes nothing by itself; the marriage continues until the sworn statement is actually recorded. Second, once it is recorded no court hearing is needed to end the second marriage, because termination follows by operation of the recording itself. People who assume it works the other way round, that the reappearance ends the marriage and the paperwork merely reports it, plan around the wrong date.
Who may record it, and where
The provision says the sworn statement of the fact and circumstances of reappearance is recorded in the civil registry of the residence of the parties to the subsequent marriage, and that it may be done at the instance of any interested person. So the returning spouse is not the only one who can set it in motion. It must be done with due notice to the spouses of the subsequent marriage, which means neither of them should learn of it after the fact. If nobody records anything, the second marriage simply continues, whatever everyone in the town knows.
The exception that swallows the rule for some couples
Termination does not follow if there is a judgment annulling the previous marriage or declaring it void ab initio. Where the first marriage has already been judicially undone, there is no prior bond for the reappearance to revive, and the second marriage is unaffected by the recording. This matters most to people who obtained a declaration of presumptive death for convenience while a nullity case was, or should have been, the real remedy. Which route was taken years ago now decides whether a reappearance can end your present marriage.
If the reappearance is disputed
The article preserves the possibility of the fact of reappearance being judicially determined in case such fact is disputed. An affidavit is a sworn assertion by a person, not a finding, and identity claims after long absences are not always what they appear. If you doubt that the person who surfaced is the absent spouse, or doubt that the recording was properly made and notice properly given, that is a question for a court rather than for the registry counter. Secure the recorded affidavit, the notice you received and the earlier declaration of presumptive death before consulting a lawyer.
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.
- Noel Buenaventura vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 127358, March 31, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Republic of the Philippines vs. Leilanie Dela Cruz Fenol, G.R. No. 212726, June 10, 2020 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Republic of the Philippines vs Jose B. Sareñogon, Jr, G.R. No. 199194, February 10, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Republic of the Philippines vs. Edna Orcelino-Villanueva, G.R. No. 210929, July 29, 2015 — read the decision on LawPhil →