Dear Atty. Angela,

I am engaged to my fiancé who was separated from his wife for more than 10 years but were not yet legally annulled.We met after he was separated and we decided to live together.

At present, we have been living as husband and wife for seven years. Just a few months ago, the decision on their annulment was released.

With this, we plan to pursue our wedding. I heard from my friend that since we have been living in for more than five years, we no longer need to get a marriage license.

Is this correct? I hope this applies to us.

Lisa

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Dear Lisa,

Unfortunately, the law that dispenses with the marriage license as a requirement for a man and a woman who have lived together exclusively with each other as husband and wife for a continuous and unbroken period of at least five years before marriage provides that it must be exclusive and without any legal impediment or third party involved.

Even when your fiancé and his first wife had separated in fact, and you have been living with each other that has already lasted for seven years, the fact remains that there was a legal impediment during your years of cohabitation. As contemplated by law, cohabitation must be like a perfect union that is valid under the law but rendered imperfect only by the absence of the marriage contract.

In Niñal v. Bayadog, G.R. 133778 (2000), the Supreme Court held that the five-year common-law cohabitation period, which is counted back from the date of celebration of marriage, should be a period of legal union had it not been for the absence of the marriage.

This five-year period should be the years immediately before the day of the marriage and a period of cohabitation characterized by exclusivity — meaning no third party was involved at any time within the five years and continuity — that is unbroken.