Under Art. 4. of the Family Code of the Philippines state; The absence of any of the essential or formal requisites shall render that marriage void ab initio, except as stated in art. 35(2)
A defect in any of the essential requisites shall render the marriage voidable as provided in art. 45
An irregularity in the formal requisites shall not affect the validity of the marriage but the party or parties responsible for the irregularity shall be civilly, criminally and administrative liable.
Example of the void marriages because of the absence of essential requisites;:
1. A marriage between a 14-year old girl and 16-year old boy, eve if both have parental consent, since under Art. 5 of the code, the minimum for marriage is 18.
2. A marriage between a boy of 18 and girl of 16, both with parental consent. The girl here still has no legal capacity to get married.
3. A marriage between two girls, or between two boys: Parties of the same sex cannot get married.
4. A marriage between parties who have legal impediment to get married under Arts. 37 and 38 of the code, like first cousins.
Hmm... by voidable, does that mean it can be annulled?
One case comes to mind. It's the case of the marriage of two local celebrities, a basketball player and a tv/movie host/actress. If I remember correctly, their marriage was annulled and the basis given was that the one who married them did not actually have license to do so. (Please correct me if I am wrong.) But according to this information you gave, wouldn't their case fall under an irregularity in the formal requisite, and therefore the validity of the marriage should not be affected?
voidable marriage is valid until annul by the court but lack of the essential requisite of marriage
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