In Heirs of Pasag v. Sps.

Parocha1, the purpose of a formal offer of evidence is:

“The Rules of Court provides that "the court shall consider

no evidence which has not been formally offered." A formal
offer is necessary because judges are mandated to rest their
findings of facts and their judgment only and strictly upon the
evidence offered by the parties at the trial. Its function is to
enable the trial judge to know the purpose or purposes for
which the proponent is presenting the evidence. On the
other hand, this allows opposing parties to examine the
evidence and object to its admissibility. Moreover, it
facilitates review as the appellate court will not be required to
review documents not previously scrutinized by the trial
court.”

The following are the grounds for not admitting pieces of evidence:

1) For documentary evidence:

a) Best Evidence Rule (Sec. 3, Rule 130, Rules of Court)
b) Parol Evidence Rule (Sec. 9, Rule 130, Rules of Court)
c) Rules on Hearsay Evidence (Secs. 36 to 47, Rule 130, Rules of Court)
2) For testimonial evidence:
a) Rules on Hearsay Evidence (Secs. 36 to 47, Rule 130, Rules of Court)
b) Opinion Evidence (Sec. 48, Rule 130, Rules of Court)
c) Character Evidence (Sec. 51, Rule 130, Rules of Court)
d) Parol Evidence Rule (Sec. 9, Rule 130, Rules of Court)

1
G.R. No. 155483, April 27, 2007.