Short answer. No, not once the choice has reached you. Article 1201 provides that the choice shall produce no effect except from the time it has been communicated — but the corollary is that a communicated choice does take effect. From that moment the obligation is to deliver that item and no other.
What the law says
The choice shall produce no effect except from the time it has been communicated.
Civil Code, Article 1201 — Communication of the Choice. Read the full provision →
What the law says
The debtor of a thing cannot compel the creditor to receive a different one, although the latter may be of the same value as, or more valuable than that which is due.
Civil Code, Article 1244 — No Substitution of the Prestation. Read the full provision →
Communication is what makes it binding
Article 1201 is a single line: The choice shall produce no effect except from the time it has been communicated. Before communication the supplier may change his mind freely — an unsent decision is not an election. After it, the alternative obligation has become a simple one, and the item chosen is the thing due. That is why the moment of communication is the fact to establish: it is the point at which your planning becomes protected and his flexibility ends.
What he owes after electing
Once the election is communicated the supplier is in the position of any debtor of a determinate thing. Article 1244 provides that The debtor of a thing cannot compel the creditor to receive a different one, although the latter may be of the same value as, or more valuable than that which is due. So a substitute is a breach unless you accept it, and accepting is your choice, not his. Article 1163 requires him to keep the thing with the diligence of a good father of a family, and Article 1170 makes him liable in damages for fraud, negligence, delay, or any contravention of the tenor of the obligation.
Where a switch is still legitimate
Two situations are different. If you agree to the change, the parties have simply modified their contract, and an acceptance sent casually by message counts. And if the arrangement was facultative rather than alternative — one prestation agreed, with the obligor allowed to render another in substitution — Article 1206 governs instead, and the substitution takes effect when made, after which the obligor bears the loss of the substitute through his delay, negligence or fraud. Check which structure your contract actually has before treating the switch as a breach.
Hold him to the election in writing
Reply the day the switch is announced. Confirm in writing what he elected, when he told you, and that you do not consent to the substitution; ask him to confirm delivery of the item chosen and the date. That single exchange fixes both the election and your refusal, and it stops a later argument that you acquiesced by silence. Keep the purchase order, the acknowledgment, and any downstream commitment you made in reliance on the choice — that is what turns a change of product into a measurable loss rather than an inconvenience.
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.
- Mondragon Leisure and Resorts Corporation vs. Court of Appeals, et al, G.R. No. 154188, June 15, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 1201 — Communication of the Choice
- Civil Code, Article 1200 — Alternative Obligations; Right of Choice
- Civil Code, Article 1206 — Facultative Obligations
- Civil Code, Article 1244 — No Substitution of the Prestation