What a legitime is, and what it is not
Philippine succession law reserves a part of the estate for certain heirs — the compulsory heirs — which a testator cannot freely give away. That reserved part is the legitime. It is the reason a Philippine will has less freedom than an American or Australian one, and the reason a child who was left out of a Filipino parent's will still has something to stand on.
What the legitime is not is a rule about Philippine property. It travels with the person, not with the land. Article 16 of the Civil Code refers the order of succession and the amount of successional rights to the national law of the person whose succession is under consideration, whatever the nature of the property and wherever it is found. So the first question in any estate with an international element is never "where is the property" — it is "what was the decedent's citizenship on the day of death," a question the national-law rule turns on entirely.
A foreign decedent: legitimes do not reach the estate
This is the holding of Bellis v. Bellis (G.R. No. L-23678, June 6, 1967, En Banc), decided on the estate of a Texan whose two illegitimate daughters claimed they had been deprived of their legitimes as compulsory heirs. The Court's answer:
It is therefore evident that whatever public policy or good customs may be involved in our System of legitimes, Congress has not intended to extend the same to the succession of foreign nationals. For it has specifically chosen to leave, inter alia, the amount of successional rights, to the decedent's national law. Specific provisions must prevail over general ones.
It follows that a foreign decedent's estate can be distributed in a way no Philippine will could achieve. Cayetano v. Leonidas (G.R. No. L-54919, May 30, 1984) is the plainest illustration: a Philippine father sought to defeat the reprobate of his daughter's Pennsylvania will on the ground that it stripped him of his legitime, and the Court recorded that the parties themselves admitted Pennsylvania law does not provide for legitimes and that the whole estate could be given to a complete stranger. The petition was dismissed. Philippine public policy did not intervene, because Bellis had already held that Article 17's public-policy paragraph is not an exception to Article 16.
Two cautions before anyone celebrates or despairs. First, we do not assert what any foreign law provides — whether the decedent's national law protects children, a spouse, or no one at all is a question of fact that must be alleged and proved in the Philippine proceeding. Second, where the decedent's citizenship and domicile were in different places, that national law's own conflicts rule may send the question back to Philippine law, which is how the acknowledged natural child in Aznar v. Garcia (G.R. No. L-16749, January 31, 1963) kept her legitime after all.
The flip side: a Filipino decedent stays bound
The same article that frees a foreign decedent from our legitimes binds every Filipino decedent to them, and residence abroad makes no difference. Thirty years in Milan, a permanent resident card, a house in Sydney — none of it changes the governing law while Philippine citizenship is retained. The Court in Llorente v. Court of Appeals (G.R. No. 124371, November 23, 2000) set out Article 15 alongside Article 16 for exactly this reason:
Art. 15. Laws relating to family rights and duties, or to the status, condition and legal capacity of persons are binding upon citizens of the Philippines, even though living abroad.
So the OFW who leaves everything to one child, or the mother who signs a deed of donation in Dubai favouring the daughter who took care of her, is making an arrangement Philippine law will measure against the legitimes of everyone else. Families rarely hear this before the fact. They almost always hear it after.
Citizenship at the date of death is the pivot
Llorente is also the case for the fact pattern that dominates this hub: the Filipino who became a foreign citizen. Lorenzo Llorente was already a naturalized American at the time of his divorce, his second marriage, the execution of his will and his death, and the Court held that issues arising from those incidents are necessarily governed by foreign law. It reversed the courts below, calling their hasty application of Philippine law and complete disregard of the will fatal, and remanded the case so the foreign law could actually be proved. Its instruction to the trial court on remand was blunt:
As a guide however, the trial court should note that whatever public policy or good customs may be involved in our system of legitimes, Congress did not intend to extend the same to the succession of foreign nationals. Congress specifically left the amount of successional rights to the decedent's national law.
Note what else Llorente decided along the way: it recognized the California divorce as valid here, which is what determined who the surviving spouse was. In estates like these, heirship and marital status are one question, not two. If a foreign divorce sits anywhere in the family history, recognition of that divorce usually has to be sorted out before anyone can say who the heirs are.
Where families need candour
This is the part of the work where our job is to say the unwelcome thing early. Sometimes a client arrives certain of a reserved share and leaves knowing the estate is governed by a law that may not recognise one. Sometimes it runs the other way, and a sibling who thought a foreign will had settled everything learns that a Filipino parent's estate could not be disposed of that freely. We would rather you hear either version from us, with the documents on the table, than discover it after the papers have been signed and the eCAR issued. Bring the death certificate, the passports or naturalisation papers, the marriage records and the will if there is one, and book a consultation. Consultations are paid (₱3,500).
Frequently asked questions
My father was a foreign citizen and left me nothing. Can I claim my legitime?
Not under Philippine law. Bellis v. Bellis (G.R. No. L-23678, June 6, 1967) holds that Congress did not extend our system of legitimes to the succession of foreign nationals, and left the amount of successional rights to the decedent's national law. Whether that law gives you anything is a question about that law, which has to be proved in the Philippine case. The honest first step is to establish his citizenship at death, then find out what that law actually provides.
My mother was a Filipino citizen but lived in Italy for thirty years. Do legitimes still apply?
Yes, if she was still a Filipino citizen when she died. Article 16 of the Civil Code refers the order of succession and the amount of successional rights to the national law of the person whose succession is under consideration, and Article 15 binds Filipino citizens to our laws on family rights and duties even though living abroad. Long residence overseas does not change citizenship by itself.
My father was a Filipino who became a naturalized American, then made a will leaving everything to his second wife. Which law applies?
His national law at the time of death, which on those facts is not Philippine law. In Llorente v. Court of Appeals (G.R. No. 124371, November 23, 2000) the decedent was already an American citizen at the time of the divorce, the second marriage, the execution of the will and his death, and the Supreme Court held that issues arising from these incidents are necessarily governed by foreign law. It reversed the lower courts for applying Philippine law hastily and remanded the case so the foreign law could be proved.
Can we agree among ourselves to ignore the legitimes?
Heirs who are all of age can agree on how to divide what they are entitled to, and that agreement is the ordinary substance of an extrajudicial settlement. What no agreement can do is bind an heir who was left out: Rule 74 provides that no extrajudicial settlement is binding upon a person who has not participated in it or had no notice of it. An excluded compulsory heir of a Filipino decedent is the most common way these settlements come undone years later.