Dear Atty. Maan,

My best friend is an illegitimate child who cared for her recently deceased father. Since her father subsequently married and had children thereafter, she would like to know if she still has any legal rights to a share of his properties. Hope you can enlighten us in this matter.

Lorna

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Dear Lorna,

As provided under Article 176 of the Family Code, generally, an illegitimate child is entitled to inherit properties or transmissible rights and obligations from their parent provided he or she was acknowledged.

Article 887 of the Civil Code of the Philippines enumerates the list of compulsory heirs:

(5) Other illegitimate children referred to in Article 287.

Further, Article 895 of the Civil Code provides:

Article 895. The legitime of each of the acknowledged natural children and each of the natural children by legal fiction shall consist of one-half of the legitime of each of the legitimate children or descendants.

The legitime of an illegitimate child who is neither an acknowledged natural, nor a natural child by legal fiction, shall be equal in every case to four-fifths of the legitime of an acknowledged natural child.

The legitime of the illegitimate children shall be taken from the portion of the estate at the free disposal of the testator, provided that in no case shall the total legitime of such illegitimate children exceed that free portion, and that the legitime of the surviving spouse must first be fully satisfied.

From the foregoing, an illegitimate child or a child born out of a valid marriage, as a compulsory heir, generally has legal rights to their father’s properties, usually entitling them to half of what a legitimate child would receive, provided the father has acknowledged them as his child.

Hope this helps.

Atty. Mary Antonnette Baudi