Text of the provision
Art. 34. No license shall be necessary for the marriage of a man and a woman who have lived together as husband and wife for at least five years and without any legal impediment to marry each other. The contracting parties shall state the foregoing facts in an affidavit before any person authorized by law to administer oaths.
The solemnizing officer shall also state under oath that he ascertained the qualifications of the contracting parties are found[sic] no legal impediment to the marriage.
(76a)
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. In the final sentence the official text reads "are found," evidently a printing error for "and found," carried identically by LawPhil and ChanRobles; it is marked [sic].
What this article means
Closing the chapter of license-exempt marriages, Article 34 dispenses with a license for a man and woman who have lived together as husband and wife for at least five years, with no legal impediment to marry each other throughout that period. The parties state these facts in a sworn affidavit, and the solemnizing officer separately swears that they ascertained the parties' qualifications and found no impediment.
Courts read the five-year requirement strictly: it must be a continuous, exclusive cohabitation as husband and wife for the full period, not an on-and-off relationship or one where either party was married to someone else during any part of it. A false affidavit of cohabitation does not cure the absence of a license — the marriage remains void under Article 35(3) for want of one.
Related provisions
- Article 27–Article 33 — the other license-exempt marriages in this chapter.
- Article 35 — marriages void for want of a genuine license, including a falsely claimed cohabitation exemption.
Cases interpreting this article
- Republic v. Dayot, cited under Article 35, is the leading authority on a false Article 34 affidavit of cohabitation; additional authorities will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.