The Civil Code and the Family Code, which both regulate filial relationships, provide that illegitimate children “shall use the surname … of their mother.” But Revilla Sr. himself authored a law in 2004 (Republic Act 9255, otherwise known as the “Revilla Law”) that amended these two codes and allowed illegitimate children to use the surname of their father, “if their filiation has been expressly recognized by the father through the record of birth appearing in the civil register, or when an admission in a public document or private handwritten instrument is made by the father.”
Simply stated, such express (not implied) recognition may be found in the original birth certificate signed by the father, or in a notarized document, or private written instrument executed by the father. Absent such express acknowledgment, an illegitimate child can use only the surname of the mother.
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The amount of support “shall be in proportion to the resources or means of the giver and to the necessities of the recipient.” It may vary proportionately from time to time according to the reduction or increase of the financial capability of the obligor and the needs of the obligee.
It is not just the parents who are obliged to give support. “Brothers and sisters not legitimately related, whether of the full or half blood, are likewise bound to support each other,” but support may be denied to illegitimate siblings “if the need is due to a cause imputable to the claimant’s fault or negligence.” Under the Family Code, the many Revilla children, whether legitimate or not, may owe support to each other.
Succession or inheritance. By succession, the property, rights and obligations (to the extent of the value of the inheritance) of a person are transmitted to the heirs (and others called devisees or legatees) upon his or her death, either by a will or by operation of law, or partly by will and partly by operation of law.
Decedents may dispose by means of a will only such portions of their property that are not reserved by law for the compulsory heirs. In other words, a testator cannot, as a rule, disinherit compulsory heirs. Once duly acknowledged, illegitimate children are entitled to inherit from their father. They are entitled to what the law refers to as “legitime,” which is that part of the testator’s estate that cannot be freely given away because the law reserves it for the compulsory heirs. While recognized illegitimate children are compulsory heirs, their legitime, according to the Revilla Law, is equivalent only to one-half of the legitime of legitimate children.
Legally “adopted” and “legitimated” children are treated better than illegitimate children because the former enjoy the same rights as legitimate ones. Children – conceived and born of parents who at the time of the conception of the former were not disqualified by any impediment to marry each other – may be legitimated by the marriage of their parents after their birth. x x x.
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