A valid marriage license is a requisite of marriage under, the absence of
which renders the marriage void ab initio.
However, there are
several instances wherein a marriage license is dispensed with, one of which is
that provided in Article 34 of the Family Code, referring to the marriage
of 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.
Rationale:
The rationale why no
license is required in such case 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. The publicity attending the
marriage license may discourage such persons from legitimizing their
status. To preserve peace in the family, avoid the peeping and suspicious
eye of public exposure and contain the source of gossip arising from the
publication of their names, the law deemed it wise to preserve their privacy
and exempt them from that requirement. (Niñal, et al. vs.
Bayadog, ibid.)
Art. 34 of the Family Code provides:
No license shall be necessary for the marriage of a man and a woman who have lived together as husband and wife for at least five years and without any legal impediment to marry each other. The contracting parties shall state the foregoing facts in an affidavit before any person authorized by law to administer oaths. The solemnizing officer shall also state under oath that he ascertained the qualifications of the contracting parties and found no legal impediment to the marriage.
Requisites:
In order that Art. 34 of the Family
Code regarding legal ratification of marital cohabitation may apply, the
following requisites must concur:
1. The man and
woman must have been living together as husband and wife for at least five
years before the marriage;
2. The parties
must have no legal impediment to marry each other;
3. The fact of
absence of legal impediment between the parties must be present at the
time of marriage;
4. The parties
must execute an affidavit stating that they have lived
together for at least five years [and are without legal impediment to marry
each other]; and
5. The solemnizing
officer must execute a sworn statement that he had ascertained the
qualifications of the parties and that he had found no legal impediment to
their marriage. (Manzano vs. Judge Sanchez, A.M. No. MTJ-00-1329, March 8,
2001)
Reckoning of 5-year period
This 5-year period should be the years immediately
before the day of the marriage and it should be a period of cohabitation
characterized by exclusivity – meaning no third party was involved at any time
within the 5 years and continuity – that is unbroken. Otherwise, if
that continuous 5-year cohabitation is computed without any distinction as to
whether the parties were capacitated to marry each other during the entire five
years, then the law would be sanctioning immorality and encouraging parties to
have common law relationships and placing them on the same footing with those
who lived faithfully with their spouse. It should be in the nature of a
perfect union that is valid under the law but rendered imperfect only by the
absence of the marriage contract.
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