Text of the provision
Art. 14. In case either or both of the contracting parties, not having been emancipated by a previous marriage, are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, they shall, in addition to the requirements of the preceding articles, exhibit to the local civil registrar, the consent to their marriage of their father, mother, surviving parent or guardian, or persons having legal charge of them, in the order mentioned. Such consent shall be manifested in writing by the interested party, who personally appears before the proper local civil registrar, or in the form of an affidavit made in the presence of two witnesses and attested before any official authorized by law to administer oaths. The personal manifestation shall be recorded in both applications for marriage license, and the affidavit, if one is executed instead, shall be attached to said applications.
(61a)
Family Code of the Philippines, Executive Order No. 209, approved July 6, 1987. The Code took effect on August 3, 1988 (Republic v. Orbecido III, G.R. No. 154380, October 5, 2005). Reproduced in full.
What this article means
Parties aged eighteen to twenty-one must exhibit the written consent of a parent or guardian to the local civil registrar — father, mother, surviving parent, or guardian, strictly in that order. Consent may be given in person before the registrar, or by affidavit before two witnesses and attested before an official authorized to administer oaths.
Consent is not merely advisory at this age band: a marriage solemnized without it is voidable under Article 45(1) — though that ground is lost if the party, after turning twenty-one, freely cohabits with the other as husband and wife.
Related provisions
- Article 15 — the lighter parental-advice rule for parties aged twenty-one to twenty-five.
- Article 45 — annulment for want of the required consent.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on the Article 14 parental-consent requirement will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.