Short answer. As soon as it has been constituted according to law. The Civil Code says that a corporation, institution, or entity for public interest or purpose, created by law, has its personality begin the moment it is validly constituted — not at some later, separate step.
What the law says
Other corporations, institutions and entities for public interest or purpose, created by law; their personality begins as soon as they have been constituted according to law
Civil Code, Article 44 — Who Are Juridical Persons. Read the full provision →
Which entities this rule covers
Article 44 places public corporations, institutions and entities in a separate category from the State and its political subdivisions, and separate again from private corporations and associations. This middle category covers bodies created by law for a public interest or purpose — the kind of government-created public corporation the question is asking about. The article gives this category its own specific rule for when legal personality actually begins.
The moment personality begins
For this category, Article 44 is direct: personality begins as soon as they have been constituted according to law. There is no additional waiting period or separate recognition step described in this rule — the moment the entity has actually been constituted in the manner the law creating it requires, it exists as a juridical person, distinct from the individuals who compose or run it.
Why 'constituted according to law' is the key phrase
The rule does not say personality begins simply because a law was passed announcing the entity's creation — it ties existence to being constituted according to law, meaning the entity must actually be set up in the way its creating law specifies. If a statute requires certain steps to establish the entity, those steps are what complete its constitution; personality follows automatically once that has happened, without a further separate declaration being necessary under this article.
How this differs from private corporations
Article 44 treats private corporations, partnerships and associations differently: for those, the law grants a juridical personality separate from each shareholder, partner, or member, under whatever general law of general application governs them. The public-interest category in the middle of the article — the one that covers a government-created public corporation — has its own, more direct trigger: constitution according to the specific law that created it, without needing a separate act of grant beyond that.
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.
- Boy Scouts of the Philippines vs. Commssion on Audit, G.R. No. 177131, June 7, 2011 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Philippine Primark Properties, Inc. vs. China Banking Corporation Trust and Assets Management Group, G.R. No. 263887, August 19, 2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Fr. Ranhilio Callangan Aquino, Dr. Pablo F. Narag, in representation of Permanent Employees of, G.R. No. 227715, November 3, 2020 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Aniceto G. Saludo, Jr. vs. Philippine National Bank, G.R. No. 193138, August 20, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →