SKINNY LAHOM VS SIBULO Search

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Case Digests and Scratch G.R. No. 143989 July 14, 2003 QUESTIONS?
Notes
FACTS:
A childless couple adopted the wife's nephew and brought him up as their own. In Name

Home 1972, the trial court granted the petition for adoption, and ordered the Civil
Registrar to change the name Jose Melvin Sibulo to Jose Melvin Lahom. Mrs. Email ID
About Lahom commenced a petition to rescind the decree of adoption, in which she
averred, that, despite the her pleas and that of her husband, their adopted son
refused to use their surname Lahom and continue to use Sibulo in all his dealing
and activities. Prior to the institution of the case, in 1998, RA No. 8552 went into
effect. The new statute deleted from the law the right of adopters to rescind a
decree of adoption (Section 19 of Article VI).
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These turn of events revealing Jose's callous indifference, ingratitude and lack of
care and concern prompted Lahom to file a petition in Court in December 1999 to
rescind the decree of adoption previously issued way back on May 5, 1972. When
Lahom filed said petition there was already a new law on adoption, specifically R.A.
8552 also known as the Domestic Adoption Act passed on March 22,1998, wherein CATEGORIES
it was provided that: "Adoption, being in the interest of the child, shall not be
subject to rescission by the adopter(s). However the adopter(s) may disinherit the
adoptee for causes provided in Article 919 of the Civil Code" (Section 19). Constitutional Law 1

Criminal Law 1
ISSUE:
Whether or not the subject adoption still be revoked or rescinded by an adopter Criminal Law Cases
after the effectivity of R.A. No. 8552, and if in the affirmative, whether or not the
adopter’s action prescribed. Haiku Case Digest

RULING: Persons and Family Relations

Jurisdiction of the court is determined by the statute in force at the time of the
Statutory Construction
commencement of the action. The controversy should be resolved in the light of
the law governing at the time the petition was filed. In this case, it was months Taxation
after the effectivity of RA 8552 that Lahom filed an action to revoke the decree of
adoption granted in 1972. By then the new law had already abrogated and
repealed the right of the adopter under the Civil Code and the family Code to Activist Post
rescind a decree of adoption. So the rescission of the adoption decree, having
been initiated by Lahom after RA 8552 had come into force, could no longer be Audio Codals
pursued.
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Besides, even before the passage of RA8552, an action to set aside the adoption is
subject to the five year bar rule under Rule 100 of the Rules of Court and that the Music Playlist for Study
adopter would lose the right to revoke the adoption decree after the lapse of that
period. The exercise of the right within a prescriptive period is a condition that Phil Jurisprudence
could not fulfill the requirements of a vested right entitled to protection. Rights are
considered vested when the right to the enjoyment is a present interest, absolute,
unconditional and perfect or fixed and irrefutable. The concept of a "vested right" About Skinny Cases
is a consequence of the constitutional guarantee of due process that expresses a
present fixed interest which in right reason and natural justice is protected against Never mind.
arbitrary state action. While adoption has often been referred to in the context of View Complete Profile
a "right", it is not naturally innate or fundamental but rather a right merely created
by statute. It is more of a privilege that is governed by the state's determination on Life, liberty, and property do not exist
what it may deem to be for the best interest and welfare of the child. Matters because men have made laws. On the
relating to adoption, including the withdrawal of the right of the adopter to nullify contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty,
the adoption decree, are subject to State regulation. Concomitantly, a right of and property existed beforehand that
action given by a statute may be taken away at any time before it has been caused men to make laws in the first
exercised. place. -Frederic Bastiat

But an adopter, while barred from severing the legal ties of adoption, can always
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for valid reasons cause the forfeiture of certain benefits otherwise accruing to an
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undeserving child, like denying him his legitime, and by will and testament, may
expressly exclude him from having a share in the disposable portion of his estate.
Categories: Adoption, G.R. No. 143989, Persons and Family Relations, Philippine
Civil Code

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