Text of the provision
Art. 53. Either of the former spouses may marry again after compliance with the requirements of the immediately preceding Article; otherwise, the subsequent marriage shall be null and void.
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 53 is short and severe. A person whose marriage has been declared void or annulled may remarry — but only after complying with Article 52, which requires the judgment, the partition, and the delivery of the children's presumptive legitimes to be recorded. Skip those steps and the new marriage is null and void.
This is the sting in the tail of the whole liquidation scheme in Articles 50–52. It is not enough to win a decree of nullity or annulment. Until the property is liquidated, the children's presumptive legitimes are delivered, and everything is registered, the party is not free to remarry validly — and a marriage contracted before those steps are done is void from the start, which is itself a fresh legal problem.
Why the Code is this strict
The requirement exists to protect the children of the first marriage. By making their presumptive legitimes a precondition to the parent's remarriage, Article 53 ensures the first family's property rights are settled before a second family is formed. It is the reason a declaration of nullity is not truly "finished" at the decree.
Related provisions
- Article 52 — the recording requirements that must be met first.
- Article 54 — children of such a subsequent marriage are legitimate.
- Article 40 — the parallel rule requiring a final judgment before remarriage.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on the voiding effect of non-compliance with Article 53 will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.