Short answer. Yes. Support during the insolvency proceedings, and for three months after, is listed among the preferred claims against the debtor's other property — ranked sixth, so it is paid ahead of most ordinary and unsecured creditors, though a handful of specific claims outrank it.
What the law says
(6) Support during the insolvency proceedings, and for three months thereafter;
Civil Code, Article 2244 — Order of Preference on Other Property. Read the full provision →
Support during the proceedings is a listed preference
The law sets out a numbered order of preference for claims against a debtor's other property — property not already tied up under more specific liens. Within that ordered list, support during the insolvency proceedings, and for three months thereafter, occupies the sixth rank. So the answer to your question is yes: there is a specific provision covering exactly this, and it does give that support claim priority over a range of other credits.
What still comes ahead of it
Five categories outrank support during the proceedings: proper funeral expenses for the debtor or dependent children without property of their own; wages owed to employees, laborers, or household helpers for the year before the insolvency proceedings began; expenses of the debtor's or family's last illness; compensation for laborers injured or made ill by their work; and credits or advancements already made for the debtor's and family's support during the year before the insolvency started. Those five are satisfied first if the estate is limited.
What ranks behind it
Everything from the seventh category onward comes after support during the proceedings: fines and civil indemnity from a crime, legal and administration expenses of the estate, various government taxes and assessments, quasi-delict damages, charitable gifts, and finally credits appearing only in a public instrument or a final judgment. Ordinary unsecured creditors typically fall into these later categories, which is why support during the proceedings is meaningfully ahead of most of the debtor's general creditors, even though it is not first in line overall.
One important limit on this list
This ordering governs claims against the debtor's other property — it does not displace preferences that attach to specific movable property under separate rules, such as Article 2241, or to specific real property under a parallel provision. A creditor holding a lien on a particular piece of property under one of those more specific rules is generally paid from that property first, and this general ordering only comes into play for whatever property is not already subject to such a specific claim.
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.
- Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation vs. Bureau of International Revenue, G.R. No. 172892, June 13, 2013 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Strategic Alliance Development Corporation vs. Radstock Securities Limited and Philippine National Construction corporation, G.R. No. 178158 / G.R. No. 180428, December 4, 2009 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Abundio Barayoga, et al. vs. Asset Privatization Trust, G.R. No. 160073, October 24, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 2244 — Order of Preference on Other Property
- Civil Code, Article 2241 — Preferred Credits on Specific Movables