Short answer. Your compulsory heirs: legitimate children and descendants; in their default, legitimate parents and ascendants; your spouse; and your illegitimate children. Article 887 reserves a share of your estate for them, called the legitime, which a will cannot take away. Nobody else on the family tree is protected.
What the law says
Compulsory heirs mentioned in Nos. 3, 4, and 5 are not excluded by those in Nos. 1 and 2; neither do they exclude one another.
Civil Code, Article 887 — Who the Compulsory Heirs Are. Read the full provision →
What the law says
Legitime is that part of the testator's property which he cannot dispose of because the law has reserved it for certain heirs who are, therefore, called compulsory heirs.
Civil Code, Article 886 — Legitime Defined. Read the full provision →
The list is short and closed
Article 887 enumerates the compulsory heirs and the enumeration is exclusive: legitimate children and descendants; in their default, legitimate parents and ascendants; the widow or widower; and illegitimate children whose filiation is proved. What their status buys them is defined in Article 886 — legitime is that part of the testator's property which he cannot dispose of because the law has reserved it for certain heirs. A will disposes of what is left after that reservation. It is not a licence to redistribute the reserved part among the same people in different proportions.
Descendants shut out ascendants; nobody shuts out the spouse
The order inside the list matters. Your parents and grandparents are compulsory heirs only in default of children and descendants, so if you leave a child, your mother inherits nothing as of right. The spouse and illegitimate children sit outside that competition. The article says so plainly: compulsory heirs mentioned in Nos. 3, 4, and 5 are not excluded by those in Nos. 1 and 2; neither do they exclude one another. A surviving wife and a child both take, and an illegitimate child takes alongside legitimate ones.
Who is not protected, however close
Brothers and sisters are not compulsory heirs. Neither are nephews, nieces, cousins, parents-in-law, stepchildren you never adopted, godchildren, or a partner you lived with but never married. They may inherit if you name them in a will, or by intestacy where no nearer heir survives, but you owe them no reserved share and leaving them out is not a defect in the will. The one relationship people most often assume is protected and is not is the long-term unmarried partner.
The practical consequences for your will
Two things follow. Filiation has to be provable, since the article requires that in all cases of illegitimate children, their filiation must be duly proved — a birth certificate, an acknowledgment, or another admissible proof, gathered while it can still be gathered. And the will must be drafted around the reserved shares rather than in spite of them, because an heir who receives less than the legitime can demand the shortfall and have excessive dispositions cut down. List every person in each protected class honestly before deciding how the free portion is spent.
How this list reads today
The first three classes in the article above still stand. The last two do not. Under Articles 163 and 165 of the Family Code there is now a single class of illegitimate children, with no distinction between the ‘acknowledged natural’ children, ‘natural children by legal fiction’ and other illegitimate children the Civil Code separated. The Family Code then fixes the legitime of each illegitimate child at one-half of the legitime of a legitimate child. The list of who cannot be disinherited is otherwise unchanged, so the article is still the right starting point — it is the sub-classes beneath it that are gone.
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.
- Amadea Angela K. Aquino vs. Rodolfo C. Aquino and Abdulah C. Aquino/Rodolfo C. Aquino, G.R. No. 208912 / G.R. No. 209018, December 7, 2021 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Martin Roberto G. Tirol vs. Sol Nolasco, G.R. No. 230103, August 27, 2020 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Ingrid V. Hilario vs. Thelma Miranda and Irenea Belloc, G.R. No. 196499, November 28, 2018 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Elenita V. Macalinao, Kenneth V. Macalinao and Kristel V. Macalinao vs. Cerina, A.K.A. Cerena N. Macalinao and Cindy N. Ma, G.R. No. 250613, April 3, 2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 887 — Who the Compulsory Heirs Are
- Civil Code, Article 886 — Legitime Defined
- Civil Code, Article 888 — Legitime of Legitimate Children