Text of the provision
Art. 63. The decree of legal separation shall have the following effects:
(1) The spouses shall be entitled to live separately from each other, but the marriage bonds shall not be severed;
(2) The absolute community or the conjugal partnership shall be dissolved and liquidated but the offending spouse shall have no right to any share of the net profits earned by the absolute community or the conjugal partnership, which shall be forfeited in accordance with the provisions of Article 43(2);
(3) The custody of the minor children shall be awarded to the innocent spouse, subject to the provisions of Article 213 of this Code; and
(4) The offending spouse shall be disqualified from inheriting from the innocent spouse by intestate succession. Moreover, provisions in favor of the offending spouse made in the will of the innocent spouse shall be revoked by operation of law.
(106a)
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 63 sets out exactly what a decree of legal separation does — and, just as importantly, what it does not. The headline is in effect (1): the spouses may live apart, but the marriage bond is not severed. They remain married. Neither can remarry. This is the fundamental difference between legal separation and nullity or annulment.
The other three effects are the price the offending spouse pays. Under (2), the property regime is dissolved and liquidated, and the guilty spouse forfeits any share of the net profits, forfeited under the rule in Article 43(2). Under (3), custody of the minor children goes to the innocent spouse, subject to Article 213 (which protects a child under seven from separation from the mother, absent compelling reasons). Under (4), the guilty spouse is disqualified from inheriting from the innocent spouse by intestacy, and any testamentary gift to them is revoked by operation of law.
The through-line
Legal separation is a fault-based remedy, and Article 63 is where fault has consequences: the innocent spouse keeps the children, keeps the profits, and is freed from inheritance in favour of the person who wronged them — all without ending the marriage. If the spouses later reconcile, Article 66 sets aside the decree, though some effects (the forfeiture, the separation of property) can survive unless the spouses agree to revive the old regime.
Related provisions
- Article 64 — the innocent spouse's right to revoke donations and insurance designations.
- Article 66 — what reconciliation undoes, and what survives it.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on the forfeiture of net profits and the intestate-disqualification effects of Article 63 will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.