Text of the provision
Art. 141. The spouses may, in the same proceedings where separation of property was decreed, file a motion in court for a decree reviving the property regime that existed between them before the separation of property in any of the following instances:
(1) When the civil interdiction terminates;
(2) When the absentee spouse reappears;
(3) When the court, being satisfied that the spouse granted the power of administration in the marriage settlements will not again abuse that power, authorizes the resumption of said administration;
(4) When the spouse who has left the conjugal home without a decree of legal separation resumes common life with the other;
(5) When parental authority is judicially restored to the spouse previously deprived thereof;
(6) When the spouses who have separated in fact for at least one year, reconcile and resume common life; or
(7) When after voluntary dissolution of the absolute community of property or conjugal partnership has been judicially decreed upon the joint petition of the spouses, they agree to the revival of the former property regime.
No voluntary separation of property may thereafter be granted. The revival of the former property regime shall be governed by Article 67.
(195a)
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
A separation of property is not necessarily permanent. This article lets the spouses move the same court to revive their old property regime — the absolute community or conjugal partnership they had before — in seven specific situations, most of them mirror-images of the causes that ended the regime in the first place: interdiction lifted, an absentee reappears, an administrator shown fit again, an estranged spouse resumes common life, parental authority restored, reconciliation after a year apart, or a joint agreement to revive after a voluntary dissolution.
Two limits matter. Once a regime has been revived this way, no further voluntary separation of property may be granted — spouses cannot toggle their regime back and forth. And the mechanics of the revival follow Article 67, the rule on reviving the former regime after reconciliation.
Related provisions
- Article 67 — how the former property regime is revived.
- Article 134 — how separation of property is decreed in the first place.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on Article 141 will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.