Short answer. The community or the partnership does. While a petition for separation of property is pending, Article 137 makes the absolute community or the conjugal partnership pay for the support of the spouses and their children — so neither spouse funds the household alone out of the argument.
What the law says
Once the separation of property has been decreed, the absolute community or the conjugal partnership of gains shall be liquidated in conformity with this Code.
Family Code, Article 137 — Liquidation After the Decree; Support Pending. Read the full provision →
What the law says
During the pendency of the proceedings for separation of property, the absolute community or the conjugal partnership shall pay for the support of the spouses and their children.
Family Code, Article 137 — Liquidation After the Decree; Support Pending. Read the full provision →
Support comes from the mass, not from a spouse
The second sentence of Article 137 is the operative one: during the pendency of the proceedings for separation of property, the absolute community or the conjugal partnership shall pay for the support of the spouses and their children. The obligation is laid on the property regime itself, which still exists until a decree ends it. That is the point of the provision. A case of this kind can run for a long time, and without it the spouse who controls the funds could starve the other into abandoning the petition.
Both spouses, not only the children
Note who is covered: the spouses and their children. Support pending the case is not limited to the children, and a spouse with no income of his or her own is entitled to be maintained out of the common property while the proceedings run. Nor does filing the petition change the character of the property — the community or partnership is intact until the decree, so paying support out of it is paying out of what both spouses already own rather than one making a concession to the other. The article says shall pay, which makes it an obligation of the regime rather than something to negotiate.
What happens when the decree comes
The first sentence deals with the day after: once the separation of property has been decreed, the absolute community or the conjugal partnership of gains shall be liquidated in conformity with this Code. So the decree does not by itself divide anything — it triggers the liquidation, which is the inventory, the payment of debts, the reimbursements between the spouses and the division of what remains. And it closes the support arrangement in this article, because after liquidation there is no common mass left to pay out of; support obligations continue, but they are met differently. Liquidation is the step the decree exists to start.
Make the household budget part of the case
Because support comes out of the common property, the practical question is who holds it and how much of it there is. Put the household's actual needs into the record early — the monthly figures for rent or amortisation, utilities, school fees, food and medical costs — supported by the bills rather than by estimates. Set that against the community's income and accounts. Where one spouse controls the money and is not releasing any, that is a matter to raise with the court in the same proceeding rather than to endure until the decree.
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.
- Teofilo B. Adolfo vs Fe T. Adolfo, G.R. No. 201427, March 18, 2015 — read the decision on LawPhil →