Text of the provision
Art. 5. Any male or female of the age of eighteen years or upwards not under any of the impediments mentioned in Articles 37 and 38, may contract marriage.
(54a)
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 5 fixes the minimum age of legal capacity to marry at eighteen, provided the party is not under one of the impediments named in Article 37 (incestuous relationships) or Article 38 (relationships void for reasons of public policy).
Age below eighteen is not a mere irregularity: it makes the marriage void from the beginning under Article 35(1), with no cure by later cohabitation or ratification. That is a deliberately harder line than the rule for parties aged eighteen to twenty-one, whose marriage without parental consent is only voidable under Article 45(1) and can be ratified.
Related provisions
- Article 14 — parental consent required for parties aged eighteen to twenty-one.
- Article 15 — parental advice for parties aged twenty-one to twenty-five.
- Article 35 — under-eighteen marriages are void, not merely voidable.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on the Article 5 minimum-age requirement will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.