Text of the provision
Art. 44. If both spouses of the subsequent marriage acted in bad faith, said marriage shall be void ab initio and all donations by reason of marriage and testamentary dispositions made by one in favor of the other are revoked by operation of law.
(n)
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. The notation (n) indicates a new provision with no direct Civil Code antecedent.
What this article means
Article 44 is the harshest consequence in the Article 41 presumptive-death sequence: if both spouses of the subsequent marriage knew the absent spouse was in fact alive (acted in bad faith), the subsequent marriage is not merely terminable on reappearance — it is void from the beginning. Every donation by reason of marriage and every testamentary disposition each made in the other's favor is automatically revoked, by operation of law, with no separate action required to undo them.
This is distinct from the good-faith case in Article 42, where the marriage is valid until the absent spouse's reappearance is recorded. Bad faith by both parties removes that protection entirely.
Related provisions
- Article 41 — the presumptive-death exception this article penalizes abuse of.
- Article 42 — the good-faith consequence of reappearance.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on the bad-faith standard under Article 44 will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.