Marriage license valid anywhere in PH

Marriage license valid anywhere in PH "m My husband and I are having severe marital problems. It got to the point where I decided to find a way to dissolve our marriage. I asked a close friend to help me find a possible legal ground. He noticed that the place of the issuance of our marriage license is different from the city where we got married. He pointed out that since our marriage license was issued in Cebu City and we got married a month later in Manila, our marriage is invalid because a marriage license is only valid in the place where it was issued and, therefore, our marriage is void. Is this sufficient ground to claim that our marriage license is invalid so that we may claim that our marriage is invalid, too? IreneDear Irene, The Family Code of the Philippines expressly states that a valid marriage license is one of the essential requisites of a valid marriage (Article 2, Ibid.). It follows from this provision that the validity of a marriage license affects the validity of a marriage.In your situation, the opinion of your friend regarding the possible dissolution of your marriage is based on the assumption that a marriage celebrated in a place other than the place of issuance of the marriage license results in an invalid marriage. In other words, your friend’s opinion is premised on his understanding that a marriage license is valid only in the place where it was issued. This opinion is contrary to what the law provides regarding the extent of the validity of a marriage license: “Art. 20. The license shall be valid in any part of the Philippines for a period of one hundred twenty days from the date of issue, and shall be deemed automatically cancelled at the expiration of the said period if the contracting parties have not made use of it. The expiry date shall be stamped in bold characters on the face of every license issued (65a) (Family Code of the Philippines).”According to the law, a marriage license may be used for marriage anywhere in the Philippines within a period of 120 days from its issuance. Applying this law to your situation, the marriage license issued in Cebu City is still a valid marriage license when used in your marriage in Manila. Since you mentioned that your marriage was celebrated a month after the issuance of your marriage license, it was still within the period of validity of a marriage license as mentioned above. Thus, using the details you provided regarding your marriage license, there appears to be no irregularity in your marriage license that may be used to question the validity of your marriage.We hope that we were able to answer your queries. Please be reminded that this advice is based solely on the facts you have narrated and our appreciation of the same. Our opinion may vary when other facts are changed or elaborated.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/