GENERAL PROVISIONS

Art. 37.

Juridical capacity, which is the fitness to be the subject of legal relations, is inherent in every natural
person and is lost only through death. Capacity to act, which is the power to do acts with legal effect, is
acquired and may be lost. (n)

Art. 38.

Minority, insanity or imbecility, the state of being a deaf-mute, prodigality and civil interdiction are mere
restrictions on capacity to act, and do not exempt the incapacitated person from certain obligations, as
when the latter arise from his acts or from property relations, such as easements. (32a)

Art. 39.

The following circumstances, among others, modify or limit capacity to act: age, insanity, imbecility, the
state of being a deaf-mute, penalty, prodigality, family relations, alienage, absence, insolvency and
trusteeship. The consequences of these circumstances are governed in this Code, other codes, the Rules
of Court, and in special laws. Capacity to act is not limited on account of religious belief or political
opinion.

A married woman, twenty-one years of age or over, is qualified for all acts of civil life, except in cases
specified by law. (n)

Minority

(1) Republic Act No. 6809 December 13, 1989

AN ACT LOWERING THE AGE OF MAJORITY FROM TWENTY-ONE TO EIGHTEEN YEARS, AMENDING FOR
THE PURPOSE EXECUTIVE ORDER NUMBERED TWO HUNDRED NINE, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled:

Section 1. Article 234 of Executive Order No. 209, the Family Code of the Philippines, is hereby amended
to read as follows:

"Art. 234. Emancipation takes place by the attainment of majority. Unless otherwise provided, majority
commences at the age of eighteen years."

Section 2. Articles 235 and 237 of the same Code are hereby repealed.

Section 3. Article 236 of the same Code is also hereby amended to read as follows:

"Art. 236. Emancipation shall terminate parental authority over the person and property of the child
who shall then be qualified and responsible for all acts of civil life, save the exceptions established by
existing laws in special cases.

"Contracting marriage shall require parental consent until the age of twenty-one.
"Nothing in this Code shall be construed to derogate from the duty or responsibility of parents and
guardians for children and wards below twenty-one years of age mentioned in the second and third
paragraphs of Article 2180 of the Civil Code."

Section 4. Upon the effectivity of this Act, existing wills, bequests, donations, grants, insurance policies
and similar instruments containing references and provisions favorable to minors will not retroact to
their prejudice.

Section 5. This Act shall take effect upon completion of its publication in at least two (2) newspapers of
general circulation.

(2) Effect on Contracts (NCC)

Art. 1327.

The following cannot give consent to a contract:

(1) Unemancipated minors;

(2) Insane or demented persons, and deaf-mutes who do not know how to write. (1263a)

Art 1390 (1)

The following contracts are voidable or annullable, even though there may have been no damage to
the contracting parties:

(1) Those where one of the parties is incapable of giving consent to a contract;

(2) Those where the consent is vitiated by mistake, violence, intimidation, undue influence or fraud.

These contracts are binding, unless they are annulled by a proper action in court. They are susceptible
of ratification. (n)

Art 1397-99

Art. 1397. The action for the annulment of contracts may be instituted by all who are thereby obliged
principally or subsidiarily. However, persons who are capable cannot allege the incapacity of those
with whom they contracted; nor can those who exerted intimidation, violence, or undue influence, or
employed fraud, or caused mistake base their action upon these flaws of the contract. (1302a)

Art. 1398. An obligation having been annulled, the contracting parties shall restore to each other the
things which have been the subject matter of the contract, with their fruits, and the price with its
interest, except in cases provided by law.

In obligations to render service, the value thereof shall be the basis for damages. (1303a)

Art. 1399. When the defect of the contract consists in the incapacity of one of the parties, the
incapacitated person is not obliged to make any restitution except insofar as he has been benefited by
the thing or price received by him. (1304)
Art. 1403 (3)

Art. 1403. The following contracts are unenforceable, unless they are ratified:

(1) Those entered into in the name of another person by one who has been given no authority or legal
representation, or who has acted beyond his powers;

(2) Those that do not comply with the Statute of Frauds as set forth in this number. In the following
cases an agreement hereafter made shall be unenforceable by action, unless the same, or some note or
memorandum, thereof, be in writing, and subscribed by the party charged, or by his agent; evidence,
therefore, of the agreement cannot be received without the writing, or a secondary evidence of its
contents:

(a) An agreement that by its terms is not to be performed within a year from the making thereof;

(b) A special promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another;

(c) An agreement made in consideration of marriage, other than a mutual promise to marry;

(d) An agreement for the sale of goods, chattels or things in action, at a price not less than five hundred
pesos, unless the buyer accept and receive part of such goods and chattels, or the evidences, or some of
them, of such things in action or pay at the time some part of the purchase money; but when a sale is
made by auction and entry is made by the auctioneer in his sales book, at the time of the sale, of the
amount and kind of property sold, terms of sale, price, names of the purchasers and person on whose
account the sale is made, it is a sufficient memorandum;

(e) An agreement of the leasing for a longer period than one year, or for the sale of real property or of
an interest therein;

(f) A representation as to the credit of a third person.

(3) Those where both parties are incapable of giving consent to a contract.

Art. 1426-27

Art. 1426. When a minor between eighteen and twenty-one years of age who has entered into a
contract without the consent of the parent or guardian, after the annulment of the contract
voluntarily returns the whole thing or price received, notwithstanding the fact the he has not been
benefited thereby, there is no right to demand the thing or price thus returned.

Art. 1427. When a minor between eighteen and twenty-one years of age, who has entered into a
contract without the consent of the parent or guardian, voluntarily pays a sum of money or delivers a
fungible thing in fulfillment of the obligation, there shall be no right to recover the same from the
obligee who has spent or consumed it in good faith. (1160A)

Art. 1489. All persons who are authorized in this Code to obligate themselves, may enter into a contract
of sale, saving the modifications contained in the following articles.
Where necessaries are those sold and delivered to a minor or other person without capacity to act, he
must pay a reasonable price therefor. Necessaries are those referred to in Article 290. (1457a)

(3) Effect on Marriage

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.

Art. 35. The following marriages shall be void from the beginning:

a) Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even with the consent of parents or
guardians;
b) Those solemnized by any person not legally authorized to perform marriages unless such
marriages were contracted with either or both parties believing in good faith that the
solemnizing officer had the legal authority to do so;
c) Those solemnized without license, except those covered the preceding Chapter;
d) Those bigamous or polygamous marriages not failing under Article 41;
e) Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the other; and
f) Those subsequent marriages that are void under Article 53. (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.)

(4) Effect on Crimes

Art. 12. Circumstances which exempt from criminal liability. — the following are exempt from criminal
liability:

a. An imbecile or an insane person, unless the latter (insane) has acted during a lucid interval.
When the imbecile or an insane person has committed an act which the law defines as a felony
(delito), the court shall order his confinement in one of the hospitals or asylums established for
persons thus afflicted, which he shall not be permitted to leave without first obtaining the
permission of the same court.
b. A person under nine years of age.
c. A person over nine years of age and under fifteen, unless he has acted with discernment, in
which case, such minor shall be proceeded against in accordance with the provisions of Art. 80
of this Code.
d. When such minor is adjudged to be criminally irresponsible, the court, in conformably with the
provisions of this and the preceding paragraph, shall commit him to the care and custody of his
family who shall be charged with his surveillance and education otherwise, he shall be
committed to the care of some institution or person mentioned in said Art. 80.
e. Any person who, while performing a lawful act with due care, causes an injury by mere
accident without fault or intention of causing it.
f. Any person who act under the compulsion of irresistible force. (mental insanity)
g. Any person who acts under the impulse of an uncontrollable fear of an equal or greater injury.
h. Any person who fails to perform an act required by law, when prevented by some lawful
insuperable cause.
 Art. 13 (2). Mitigating circumstances. — The following are mitigating circumstances;

a. Those mentioned in the preceding chapter, when all the requisites necessary to justify or
to exempt from criminal liability in the respective cases are not attendant.
b. That the offender is under eighteen year of age or over seventy years. In the case of the
minor, he shall be proceeded against in accordance with the provisions of Art. 80.
c. That the offender had no intention to commit so grave a wrong as that committed.
d. That sufficient provocation or threat on the part of the offended party immediately
preceded the act.
e. That the act was committed in the immediate vindication of a grave offense to the one
committing the felony (delito), his spouse, ascendants, or relatives by affinity within the
same degrees.
f. That of having acted upon an impulse so powerful as naturally to have produced passion or
obfuscation.
g. That the offender had voluntarily surrendered himself to a person in authority or his agents,
or that he had voluntarily confessed his guilt before the court prior to the presentation of
the evidence for the prosecution;
h. That the offender is deaf and dumb, blind or otherwise suffering some physical defect which
thus restricts his means of action, defense, or communications with his fellow beings.
i. Such illness of the offender as would diminish the exercise of the will-power of the offender
without however depriving him of the consciousness of his acts.
j. And, finally, any other circumstances of a similar nature and analogous to those above
mentioned.

Art. 68. Penalty to be imposed upon a person under eighteen years of age. — When the offender is a
minor under eighteen years and his case is one coming under the provisions of the paragraphs next to
the last of Article 80 of this Code, the following rules shall be observed:

1. Upon a person under fifteen but over nine years of age, who is not exempted from liability by
reason of the court having declared that he acted with discernment, a discretionary penalty shall be
imposed, but always lower by two degrees at least than that prescribed by law for the crime which he
committed.

2. Upon a person over fifteen and under eighteen years of age the penalty next lower than that
prescribed by law shall be imposed, but always in the proper period.

Article 80.

Suspension of sentence of minor delinquents. — Whenever a minor of either sex, under sixteen years
of age at the date of the commission of a grave or less grave felony, is accused thereof, the court, after
hearing the evidence in the proper proceedings, instead of pronouncing judgment of conviction, shall
suspend all further proceedings and shall commit such minor to the custody or care of a public or
private, benevolent or charitable institution, established under the law of the care, correction or
education of orphaned, homeless, defective, and delinquent children, or to the custody or care of any
other responsible person in any other place subject to visitation and supervision by the Director of
Public Welfare or any of his agents or representatives, if there be any, or otherwise by the
superintendent of public schools or his representatives, subject to such conditions as are prescribed
herein below until such minor shall have reached his majority age or for such less period as the court
may deem proper.

The court, in committing said minor as provided above, shall take into consideration the religion of such
minor, his parents or next of kin, in order to avoid his commitment to any private institution not under
the control and supervision of the religious sect or denomination to which they belong.

The Director of Public Welfare or his duly authorized representatives or agents, the superintendent of
public schools or his representatives, or the person to whose custody or care the minor has been
committed, shall submit to the court every four months and as often as required in special cases, a
written report on the good or bad conduct of said minor and the moral and intellectual progress made
by him.

The suspension of the proceedings against a minor may be extended or shortened by the court on the
recommendation of the Director of Public Welfare or his authorized representative or agents, or the
superintendent of public schools or his representatives, according as to whether the conduct of such
minor has been good or not and whether he has complied with the conditions imposed upon him, or
not. The provisions of the first paragraph of this article shall not, however, be affected by those
contained herein.

If the minor has been committed to the custody or care of any of the institutions mentioned in the first
paragraph of this article, with the approval of the Director of Public Welfare and subject to such
conditions as this official in accordance with law may deem proper to impose, such minor may be
allowed to stay elsewhere under the care of a responsible person.

If the minor has behaved properly and has complied with the conditions imposed upon him during his
confinement, in accordance with the provisions of this article, he shall be returned to the court in order
that the same may order his final release.

In case the minor fails to behave properly or to comply with the regulations of the institution to which
he has been committed or with the conditions imposed upon him when he was committed to the care
of a responsible person, or in case he should be found incorrigible or his continued stay in such
institution should be inadvisable, he shall be returned to the court in order that the same may render
the judgment corresponding to the crime committed by him.

The expenses for the maintenance of a minor delinquent confined in the institution to which he has
been committed, shall be borne totally or partially by his parents or relatives or those persons liable to
support him, if they are able to do so, in the discretion of the court; Provided, That in case his parents or
relatives or those persons liable to support him have not been ordered to pay said expenses or are
found indigent and cannot pay said expenses, the municipality in which the offense was committed shall
pay one-third of said expenses; the province to which the municipality belongs shall pay one-third; and
the remaining one-third shall be borne by the National Government: Provided, however, That whenever
the Secretary of Finance certifies that a municipality is not able to pay its share in the expenses above
mentioned, such share which is not paid by said municipality shall be borne by the National
Government. Chartered cities shall pay two-thirds of said expenses; and in case a chartered city cannot
pay said expenses, the internal revenue allotments which may be due to said city shall be withheld and
applied in settlement of said indebtedness in accordance with section five hundred and eighty-eight of
the Administrative Code.

(5) Effect on Quasi-Delicts

Art. 2176. Whoever by act or omission causes damage to another, there being fault or negligence is
obliged to pay for the damage done. Such fault or negligence, if there is no pre-existing contractual
relation between the parties, is called a quasi-delict and is governed by the provisions of this Chapter.

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Art. 2180. The obligation imposed by Art. 2176 is demandable not only for one’s own acts or omissions
but also for those of persons for whom one is responsible.

The father and, in case of his death or incapacity, the mother, are responsible for the damages caused
by the minor children who live in their company.

Guardians are liable for damages caused by the minors or incapacitated persons who are under their
authority and live in their company.

The owners and managers of an establishment or enterprise are likewise responsible for damages
caused by their employees in the service of the branches in which the latter are employed or on the
occasion of their functions.

Employers shall be liable for the damages caused by their employees and household helpers acting
within the scope of their assigned tasks, even though the former are not engaged in any business or
industry.

The State is responsible in like manner when it acts through a special agent; but not when the damage
has been caused by the official to whom the task done properly pertains, in which case what is provided
in Article 2176 shall be applicable.

Lastly, teachers or heads of establishments of arts and trades shall be liable for damages caused by
their pupils and students or apprentices, so long as they remain in their custody.

The responsibility treated of in this article shall cease when the persons herein mentioned prove that
they observed all the diligence of a good father of a family to prevent damage. (1903a)

Art. 2181. Whoever pays for the damage caused by his dependents or employees may recover from the
latter what he has paid or delivered in satisfaction of the claim. (1904)

Art. 2182. If the minor or insane person causing damage has no parents or guardian, the minor or
insane person shall be answerable with his own property in an action against him where a guardian ad
litem shall be appointed. (n)