LEGAL BASIS: PETITION FOR LEGAL SEPARATION

Definition: Legal separation is a judicial process where the marital

obligations of the spouses to live together as husband and wife as
well as their property relations are terminated.

A. LAW:
1. The Family Code of the Philippines
Article 55 of the Family Code
GROUNDS
1) Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed
against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;
2) Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to
change religious or political affiliation;
3) 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;
4) Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more
than six years, even if pardoned;
5) Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent;
6) Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;
7) Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous
marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad;
8) Sexual infidelity or perversion;
9) Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or
10) Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable
cause for more than one year.

Article 63 of the Family Code

EFFECTS:
(1)The spouses shall be entitled to live separately from each other,
but the marriage bonds shall not be severed;
(2) 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);
(3) The custody of the minor children shall be awarded to the
innocent spouse, subject to the provisions of Article 213 of this Code;
and
(4) 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)

2. The Civil Code of the Philippines

Art. 176 of the Civil Code.
In case of legal separation, the guilty spouse shall forfeit his or her
share of the conjugal partnership profits, which shall be awarded to
the children of both, and the children of the guilty spouse had by a
prior marriage. However, if the conjugal partnership property came
mostly or entirely from the work or industry, or from the wages and
salaries, or from the fruits of the separate property of the guilty
spouse, this forfeiture shall not apply. In case there are no children,
the innocent spouse shall be entitled to all the net profits.

3. Rule on Legal Separation A. M. NO. 02-11-11-SC

Sec. 2. Petition. - (a) Who may and when to file. - (1) A petition for
legal separation may be filed only by the husband or the wife, as the
case may be within five years from the time of the occurrence of any
of the grounds.
Section 2(c)- A petition for legal separation before the Family Court of
the place where the wife or husband has been residing for at least six
months prior to the date of filing or in case your husband is a non-
resident, in the place where he may be found in the Philippines at
Plaintiff’s election.

B. JURISPRUDENCE

1. Quiao vs Quiao G.R. No 176556 – Legal separation does not

violate the guilty spouse’s vested rights. The petitioner's claim
of a vested right has no basis considering that even under
Article 176 of the Civil Code, his share of the conjugal
partnership profits may be forfeited if he is the guilty party in a
legal separation case. Thus, after trial and after the petitioner
was given the chance to present his evidence, the petitioner's
vested right claim may in fact be set aside under the Civil Code
since the trial court found him the guilty party.

2. Abalos v. Dr. Macatangay, Jr- Prior to the liquidation of the

conjugal partnership, the interest of each spouse in the
conjugal assets is inchoate, a mere expectancy, which
constitutes neither a legal nor an equitable estate, and does not
ripen into title until it appears that there are assets in the
community as a result of the liquidation and settlement. The
interest of each spouse is limited to the net remainder or
remanente liquido (haber ganancial) resulting from the
liquidation of the affairs of the partnership after its dissolution.
Thus, the right of the husband or wife to one-half of the
conjugal assets does not vest until the dissolution and
liquidation of the conjugal partnership, or after dissolution of the
marriage, when it is finally determined that, after settlement of
conjugal obligations, there are net assets left which can be
divided between the spouses or their respective heirs