Falsified affidavit of cohabitation

Falsified affidavit of cohabitation "I met my wife Ann in 2006. She got pregnant in 2007 so her father arranged everything and we got married in the same year. I remember that we failed to obtain a marriage license when the marriage took place and we just signed an affidavit that we have been cohabiting for five years. Ann and I got separated in 2015. Do I have any ground under the law to have that marriage declared void? EarnshawDear Earnshaw, For your information, there are essential and formal requisites of marriage that shall be complied with, and these are found under the following provisions of the Family Code of the Philippines:“Article 2. No marriage shall be valid, unless these essential requisites are present: 1) Legal capacity of the contracting parties who must be a male or female and2) Consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer. Article 3. The formal requisites of marriage are:1) Authority of the solemnizing officer2) A valid marriage license except in the cases provided for in Chapter 2 of this Title and3) A marriage ceremony which takes place with the appearance of the contracting parties before the solemnizing officer and their personal declaration that they take each other as husband and wife in the presence of not less than two witnesses of legal age.” Relative to the above provisions of law is Article 4 of the same law which states that “the absence of any of the essential or formal requisites shall render the marriage void ab initio, except as stated in Article 35 (2).”The affidavit of cohabitation that you and Ann signed just to escape the license requirement had no value thus, the marriage celebrated without the required marriage license would be void. In the case of De Castro vs. De Castro (G.R. No. 160172, February 13, 2008), the Supreme Court through Honorable former Associate Justice Dante O. Tinga stated that:“The falsity of the affidavit cannot be considered as a mere irregularity in the formal requisites of marriage. The law dispenses with the marriage license requirement for a man and a woman who have lived together and exclusively with each other as husband and wife for a continuous and unbroken period of at least five years before the marriage. The aim of this provision is to avoid exposing the parties to humiliation, shame and embarrassment concomitant with the scandalous cohabitation of persons outside a valid marriage due to the publication of every applicant’s name for a marriage license. In the instant case, there was no “scandalous cohabitation” to protect in fact, there was no cohabitation at all. The false affidavit which petitioner and respondent executed so they could push through with the marriage has no value whatsoever it is a mere scrap of paper. They were not exempt from the marriage license requirement. Their failure to obtain and present a marriage license renders their marriage void ab initio.”Applying this decision in your situation, the affidavit of cohabitation you submitted is false considering that you only met Ann in 2006, and you married her in 2007. The parties to the marriage clearly cannot comply with the requirement of five years of cohabitation to be exempted from obtaining a marriage license. Since there is no marriage license and your situation does not fall under any of the marriages that are exempt from the license requirement, then the marriage you contracted with Ann is void.This opinion is solely based on the facts you have narrated and our appreciation of the same. Thus, the opinion may vary when the facts are changed or further elaborated. We hope that we were able to enlighten you on the matter.Editor’s note: Dear PAO is a daily column of the Public Attorney’s Office. Questions for Chief Acosta may be sent to ." - https://www.affordablecebu.com/