Short answer. Three, and the Family Code lists them: to bear the surnames of both father and mother, to receive support from parents, ascendants and in proper cases siblings, and to the legitime and other successional rights the Civil Code grants. Everything else flows from these.
What the law says
Legitimate children shall have the right: (1) To bear the surnames of the father and the mother, in conformity with the provisions of the Civil Code on Surnames; (2) To receive support from their parents, their ascendants, and in proper cases, their brothers and sisters, in conformity with the provisions of this Code on Support;
Family Code, Article 174 — Rights of Legitimate Children. Read the full provision →
The surname right, and why it is listed first
A legitimate child has the right to bear the surnames of the father and the mother. Surname is not decoration in Philippine law; it is the everyday proof of filiation that schools, banks, passport counters and estate lawyers actually look at. Because the right is to the surnames of both parents, it does not depend on which parent the child lives with, on the state of the parents' marriage, or on either parent's willingness. Where a registry entry does not reflect it, the problem is with the record rather than with the right.
Support runs further than the parents
The second right is to receive support from their parents, their ascendants, and in proper cases, their brothers and sisters. Two features are worth noticing. The obligation is not confined to the mother and father: grandparents and, in proper cases, siblings are named, which matters when parents are dead, absent or without means. And the right is reciprocal in the wider scheme, so a child supported today may owe support tomorrow. The Code's own chapter on support supplies the amount, which is measured against need on one side and resources on the other.
The successional right is the one people underestimate
The third right is to the legitime and other successional rights granted by the Civil Code. The legitime is the portion of an estate reserved by law for compulsory heirs, and its defining feature is that a parent cannot take it away by will. A parent may dispose freely of the remainder; the reserved portion is not theirs to give elsewhere. This is why a will that leaves everything to a second family, a favoured child or a stranger does not end the matter, and why children who were left out of one are not without a remedy.
What to check if any of the three is being denied
All three rights rest on status, so the record of status is what to secure first: the birth certificate as it stands in the civil registry today and the parents' marriage certificate. Where those two documents line up, the rights follow and the argument is usually about enforcement rather than entitlement. Where the registry entry is wrong, incomplete or contradicts the marriage record, that discrepancy is the real issue and should be put in front of a lawyer before any claim for support or inheritance is filed.
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.
- In Re: Petition for Change of Name and/or Correction/Cancellation of Entry in Civil Registry of Julian Lin Carulasan Wang vs. Cebu City Civil Registrar. P.E.T. Case No. 002 March 29, 2005 Ronald Allan Poe vs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, G.R. No. 159966, March 30, 2005 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Anacleto Ballaho Alanis III vs. Court of Appeals, Cagayan de Oro City and Hon, G.R. No. 216425, November 11, 2020 — read the decision on LawPhil →