Text of the provision
Art. 3. The formal requisites of marriage are:
(1) Authority of the solemnizing officer;
(2) A valid marriage license except in the cases provided for in Chapter 2 of this Title; and
(3) A marriage ceremony which takes place with the appearance of the contracting parties before the solemnizing officer and their personal declaration that they take each other as husband and wife in the presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age.
(53a, 55a)
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
Article 3 lists the three formal requisites of marriage, distinct from the essential requisites — legal capacity and consent — set out in Article 2. A marriage needs all three: a solemnizing officer with authority to perform it, a valid marriage license (unless the marriage falls within one of the license-exempt categories in Chapter 2), and an actual ceremony in which the parties personally appear and declare, before at least two witnesses of legal age, that they take each other as husband and wife.
The distinction between essential and formal requisites matters because a defect in each fails differently. A missing essential requisite generally voids the marriage outright. A defect in a formal requisite can also void the marriage — most commonly for want of a genuine license — but the good-faith exception for an unauthorized officer shows the formal requisites are not applied with perfect rigidity.
The three requisites in outline
- Authority of the solemnizing officer — who may solemnize marriages is fixed by other provisions of this Title; a marriage performed by someone without that authority is void under Article 35(2), unless either party believed in good faith that the officer had authority.
- A valid marriage license — except for the license-exempt marriages in Chapter 2 (articulo mortis, remote residence, Muslim and ethnic-community customs, and five years' cohabitation).
- The marriage ceremony — personal appearance and declaration before the solemnizing officer and at least two witnesses, detailed further in Article 6.
Questions about this provision
Related provisions
- Article 2 — the essential requisites this article's formal requisites complement.
- Article 6 — the marriage ceremony in detail.
- Article 35 — the consequences when a formal requisite is absent or defective.
Cases citing this article
- Rommel Genio y Santos vs. People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 261666, January 24, 2024 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Ma. Fe Imelda Lapira y Tungol vs. Jimmy Fariscal and People of the Philippines, G.R. No. 233512, February 26, 2026 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Eloisa Maliwat-Melad vs. Amancio Reyes Melad and Republic of the Philippines, G.R. No. 267998, April 23, 2025 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Virginia D. Calimag vs. Hiers of Silvertra N. Macapaz, represented by Anastacio P. Macapaz, Jr, G.R. No. 191936, June 1, 2016 — read the decision on LawPhil →
- Restituto M. Alcantara vs. Rosita A. Alcantara, et al, G.R. No. 167746, August 28, 2007 — read the decision on LawPhil →
Compiled automatically from Supreme Court decisions published on LawPhil that expressly cite this article, most frequently cited first. A listing means the decision cites the provision — it is not a statement that the case is the leading authority, and it does not show whether a ruling has since been modified or abandoned. Always read the decision itself.