Shortcut Annulment

The excitement of people on marriage can be met by heartache, pain, feeling trapped, physical violence and plain anguish. After some moments of joy which seems to last forever, comes frustration which has no end in sight. This is the plight of some in our country where under our constitution, the union between husband and wife is as inviolable as a sacred vow. We do not have divorce but only declaration of nullity or annulment. Yet even with the availability of these remedies, people who are inside an impossible relationship still have to go through a very tedious, long, and expensive process just to release a bond which has become a legal shackle. Although marriage is contracted by two persons, some get the surprise of a lifetime when they discover that they are married to someone they do not even know.

Republic vs. Olaybar

Merlinda Olaybar and her boyfriend for 5 years wanted to get married and she was required to obtain a Certificate of No Marriage from the National Statistics Office (now Philippine Statistics Authority). To her horror, the records of the NSO say that she was married to a certain Ye Son Sune, a Korean national. It appears on the certificate that they were married on 24 June 2002 at a court in Cebu City. She denied ever knowing and meeting Ye Son Sune and claimed that her signature appearing on the Certificate is not hers and that she never appeared before a judge with her purported husband during the “marriage”. She then filed before the Regional Trial Court, a Petition for Cancellation of Entries in the Marriage Contract. During the trial she was able to prove that she was not present during the supposed marriage and her signature was forged. The RTC then rendered a decision granting the petition and ordering the Civil Registrar of Cebu to delete the name of Olaybar which was entered as “WIFE” on the marriage contract. The Republic through the Solicitor General petitioned the Supreme Court to review the decision of the RTC claiming that the cancellation was in fact a declaration of nullity of marriage.

No Marriage Exists in the First Place

The Supreme Court denied the petition of the Republic. The position of the Republic is that the RTC made a shortcut which was a grave error. The case should not be for correction of entries but for the declaration of nullity of the marriage. In ordering the Civil Registrar to delete Olaybar’s name in the certificate of marriage, the court in fact declared the marriage void ab initio (from the beginning). The Court clarified that indeed one cannot declare his marriage void by merely correcting entries on civil registry records since a petition for declaration of nullity has certain requirements and procedures that must be strictly followed. This present case, however is different because in the first place there was really no marriage to nullify. It was proved by Olaybar that her name and personal circumstances were merely used by who ever perpetrated the forgery and the only proof of the purported marriage is the certificate of marriage. ”Respondent indeed sought, not the nullification of marriage as there was no marriage to speak of, but the correction of the record of such marriage to reflect the truth as set forth by the evidence. Otherwise stated, in allowing the correction of the subject certificate of marriage by cancelling the wife portion thereof, the trial court did not, in any way, declare the marriage void as there was no marriage to speak of.” (G.R. No. 189538 February 10, 2014)