Parties:
RODOLFO S. AGUILAR, Petitioner v. EDNA G. SIASAT, Respondents.
Petitioner complained that he is the sole surviving heir of the two parcels of land in Bago and Bacolod of Aguilar spouses (Alfredo and Candelaria) on the ground of his legitimate filiation and biological sonship. Respondent disagrees.
Subject title: Two parcels of land in Bago and Bacolod
| Petitioner | Respondent (Aguilar) |
| • Presented documentary evidences such as school records, SSS, employment• Respondent stole titles, prayed for mandatory relief•Only SSS was binding. SSS E-1 is a public instrument subscribed by Alfredo Aguilar. | • Petitioner mere stranger raised by spouses• Not natural or adopted child of the Aguilar spouses• The wife inheritied the husband’s properties and entrusted to respondent for safekeeping• Prayed for award of moral damages |
RTC:
Dismissed plaintiff’s complaint
Grounds: (1) No solid evidence plaintiff is biological or legally adopted son (2) Affidavit of wife and husband concrete proof that plaintiff herein was never a son
CA:
Affirmed RTC decision
(1) Use of a family surname certainly does not establish pedigree.
(2) failed to hurdle the “high standard of proof”
Issue:
Does petitioner’s evidences satisfy Article 172’s requirements?
Arguments raised by petitioner:
…that respondent has no personality to impugn his legitimacy and cannot collaterally attack his legitimacy; that the action to impugn his legitimacy has already prescribed pursuant to Articles 170 and 171 of the Family Code;23 and that having proved his filiation, mandatory injunction should issue, and an award of damages is in order.
Ruling:
Petition granted.
(1) Alfredo Aguilar’s SSS Form E-1 (Exhibit “G”) satisfies the requirement for proof of filiation and relationship to the Aguilar spouses under Article 172 of the Family Code; He placed Rodolfo as his legitimate child, although no signature, but in his handwriting.
Quoting De Jesus v. Estate of Dizon
(1) The filiation of illegitimate children, like legitimate children, is established by … (2) an admission of legitimate filiation in a public document or a private handwritten instrument and signed by the parent concerned.
(2) The due recognition of an illegitimate child in a record of birth, a will, a statement before a court of record, or in any authentic writing
(2) He could have proceeded to the Office of the Civil Registrar General at the NSO in Manila to secure a copy of his Certificate of Live Birth, since for every registered birth in the country, a copy of the Certificate of Live Birth is submitted to said office.
(3) Article 26331 refers to an action to impugn the legitimacy of a child, to assert and prove that a person is not a man’s child by his wife. However, the present case is not one impugning petitioner’s legitimacy. Respondents are asserting not merely that petitioner is not a legitimate child of Jose (the alleged father), but that she is not a child of Jose at all. <- What should be impugned would be legitimacy, not being a child itself.
English