Text of the provision
Art. 898. If the widow or widower survives with legitimate children or descendants, and with illegitimate children other than acknowledged natural, or natural children by legal fiction, the share of the surviving spouse shall be the same as that provided in the preceding article.
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Civil Code of the Philippines, Republic Act No. 386, approved June 18, 1949, effective August 30, 1950. Reproduced in full; verified verbatim against the LawPhil and ChanRobles official-text renderings.
What this article means
As originally enacted, where the surviving spouse concurred with legitimate children and with illegitimate children other than acknowledged natural children, the spouse’s share was the same as under the preceding article.
Article 898 does not fix a separate fraction of its own; it operates as a cross-reference that borrows whatever share Article 897 assigns to a surviving spouse, and extends that identical share to a spouse who instead concurs with legitimate children and this different class of illegitimate children. The two articles must therefore be read together, since neither stands complete on its own — Article 897 supplies the actual portion, while Article 898 simply identifies which additional combination of surviving heirs receives that same treatment.
How this article reads today. This article distinguishes between classes of illegitimate children that the Family Code abolished. See Articles 163, 165 and 176 of the Family Code for the rules that now apply.
Questions about this provision
Related provisions
- Article 897 — Spouse With Acknowledged Natural Children.
- Article 899 — Spouse, Ascendants and Illegitimate Children.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.