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.

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Cases citing this article

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.

Note. The text of the provision above is reproduced in full from the official enactment. The annotation, case summaries and commentary around it are the work of Vivas & Nobles Law Office and are general legal information, not legal advice. Whether this provision applies to a particular marriage depends on facts that only a lawyer reviewing your situation can assess.