GR 133054; (January, 1999) (Digest)
G.R. No. 133054 January 28, 1999
REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, petitioner, vs. GERSON R. ABADILLA, LUZVIMINDA M. CELESTINO, and THE MINORS EMERSON C. ABADILLA AND RAFAEL C. ABADILLA, REPRESENTED BY THEIR GUARDIAN AD LITEM LUZVIMINDA M. CELESTINO, respondents.
FACTS
Gerson Abadilla and Luzviminda Celestino have been living together as husband and wife without the benefit of marriage. During their cohabitation, they had two children, Emerson (born October 18, 1989) and Rafael (born July 28, 1992). In the children’s Certificates of Birth, they were registered with the surname “Abadilla,” their father’s name was entered as “Herson” Abadilia, and the date and place of the parents’ marriage was entered as June 19, 1987, at Dingras, Ilocos Norte. The respondents filed an Amended Petition for Correction/Cancellation of Entries with the Regional Trial Court of Laoag City, seeking to delete the entries on the date and place of marriage of the parents and to correct the father’s first name from “Herson” to “Gerson.” Both parents testified they were not married. The trial court granted the petition and ordered the Civil Registrar to make the corrections. The Republic, through the Office of the Solicitor General, filed the instant petition, arguing that the trial court erred in allowing the deletion of the marriage entries without also ordering the change of the minors’ surname from “Abadilla” to “Celestino.”
ISSUE
Whether the trial court, in granting the petition for correction of entries in the birth certificates of illegitimate children, erred in not also ordering the change of the children’s surname to that of their mother.
RULING
Yes. The petition was granted. The Supreme Court modified the decision of the Regional Trial Court. The Court ruled that since Emerson and Rafael are illegitimate children (their parents not being married), and their births occurred when the Family Code (effective August 30, 1988) was already governing, Article 176 of the Family Code applies. This article explicitly provides that illegitimate children shall use the surname of their mother. Consequently, with the correction deleting the entries on the parents’ marriage (which confirmed the children’s illegitimacy), the corresponding correction with respect to their surname should also have been made. The Civil Registrar of San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, was ordered to change the entry in the Amended Birth Certificates of the minors with respect to their surname from “Abadilla” to “Celestino.”