Short answer. It falls under special proceedings. Rule 72's list of matters governed by special proceedings rules, rather than ordinary civil actions, expressly includes change of name, alongside estate settlement, guardianship, adoption, habeas corpus, and several other listed matters that do not fit the ordinary plaintiff-versus-defendant model of a civil case.
What the law says
Rules of special proceedings are provided for in the following cases: (a) Settlement of estate of deceased persons; (b) Escheat; (c) Guardianship and custody of children; (d) Trustees; (e) Adoption; (f) Rescission and revocation of adoption; (g) Hospitalization of insane persons; (h) Habeas corpus; (i) Change of name; (j) Voluntary dissolution of corporations; (k) Judicial approval of voluntary recognition of minor natural children; (l) Constitution of family home; (m) Declaration of absence and death; Cancellation or correction of entries in the civil registry.
Rule 72, Section 1 — Subject matter of special proceedings. Read the full provision →
A separate track from ordinary lawsuits
Philippine procedure splits civil matters into two tracks: ordinary civil actions, where one party sues another over a cause of action, and special proceedings, where a party asks a court to establish a status, right, or fact. Rule 72 is where that second track begins, and it opens by listing exactly which matters belong to it, so that a petitioner and the court both know from the start which set of procedural rules governs the case they are about to file.
What's on the list
The list runs from estate settlement and guardianship through adoption, habeas corpus, change of name, voluntary corporate dissolution, and declaration of absence and death, among others. These are grouped together because none of them fits the ordinary plaintiff-versus-defendant mold; each instead asks the court to declare or establish something, whether it is who administers an estate, who may adopt a child, or what a person's legal name will be going forward.
Change of name specifically
Item (i) on the list places change of name squarely within special proceedings. That classification matters in practice, because it determines the procedural rules that apply to filing the petition, notifying interested parties, and obtaining the court's order, which are not identical to the rules that govern an ordinary lawsuit between two disputing parties, and typically involve publication and a hearing rather than an adversarial trial between opposing litigants.
Why the classification is not just a label
Because special proceedings and ordinary civil actions follow different procedural tracks, misfiling a petition that belongs in one track as though it belonged in the other can create real complications — from the wrong filing fees to the wrong notice requirements to a court questioning whether it is even the right kind of case before it. Rule 72's list exists precisely so a petitioner can check, before filing anything, which track a given matter actually belongs to.
Related provisions
- Rule 72, Section 1 — Subject matter of special proceedings
- Rule 72, Section 2 — Applicability of rules of civil actions