TITLE 11. LEGAL SEPARATION

Under the Family Code of the Philippines . . .

Article 55. A petition for legal separation may be filed on any of the following grounds:

• Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;
• Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation;
• Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement;
• Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years, even if pardoned;
• Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent;
• Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;
• Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad;
• Sexual infidelity or perversion;
• Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or
• Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year.

For purposes of this Article, the term "child" shall include a child by nature or by adoption. (9a)

Article 56. The petition for legal separation shall be denied on any of the following grounds:

• Where the aggrieved party has condoned the offense or act complained of;
• Where the aggrieved party has consented to the commission of the offense or act complained of;
• Where there is connivance between the parties in the commission of the offense or act constituting the ground for legal separation;
• Where both parties have given ground for legal separation;
• Where there is collusion between the parties to obtain decree of legal separation; or
• Where the action is barred by prescription. (100a)

Article 63. The decree of legal separation shall have the following effects:

• The spouses shall be entitled to live separately from each other, but the marriage bonds shall not be severed;
• The absolute community or the conjugal partnership shall be dissolved and liquidated but the offending spouse shall have no right to any share of the net profits earned by the absolute community or the conjugal partnership, which shall be forfeited in accordance with the provisions of Article 43(2);
• The custody of the minor children shall be awarded to the innocent spouse, subject to the provisions of Article 213 of this Code; and
• The offending spouse shall be disqualified from inheriting from the innocent spouse by intestate succession. Moreover, provisions in favor of the offending spouse made in the will of the innocent spouse shall be revoked by operation of law. (106a)

Article 64. After the finality of the decree of legal separation, the innocent spouse may revoke the donations made by him or by her in favor of the offending spouse, as well as the designation of the latter as beneficiary in any insurance policy, even if such designation be stipulated as irrevocable. The revocation of the donations shall be recorded in the registries of property in the places where the properties are located. Alienations, liens and encumbrances registered in good faith before the recording of the complaint for revocation in the registries of property shall be respected. The revocation of or change in the designation of the insurance beneficiary shall take effect upon written notification thereof to the insured.

The action to revoke the donation under this Article must be brought within five years from the time the decree of legal separation become final. (107a)