Facts: 

 Petitioner Ma. Cristina Braza and Pablo Braza Jr. were married in 1978. In 2002, Pablo died in a vehicular accident. During the wake, respondent Lucille Titular and her son, Patrick Alvin Titutar showed up and introduced themselves as the wife and son, respectively, of Pablo. Cristina made inquiries in the course of which she obtained Patrick’s birth certificate from the Local Civil Registrar of Negros Occidental which stated that: (1) Pablo is the father of Patrick having acknowledged by the father on January 13, 1997;  and, (2) Patrick was legitimated by virtue of the subsequent marriage of his parents; hence, his name was changed to Patrick Alvin Titular Braza. Cristina likewise obtained a copy of a marriage contract showing that Pablo and Lucille were married in 1998.

Cristina and her co-petitioner (her three legitimate children with Pablo) filed before the RTC of Negros a petition to correct the entries in the birth certificate record of Patrick in the Local Civil Registry. They contended that Patrick could not have been legitimated by the supposed subsequent marriage between Lucille and Pablo because said marriage is bigamous on account of a valid and subsisting marriage between her (Cristina) and Pablo.

Petitioner prayed for the:

1. Correction of the entries in Patrick’s birth record with respect to his legitimation, the name of the father and his acknowledgment and the use of the last name “BRAZA”;

2. A directive to Leon, Cecilia and Lucille, all surnamed Titular, as guardians of the minor Patrick, to submit Patrick to DNA testing to determine his paternity and filiation;

3. The declaration of nullity of the legitimation of Patrick as stated in his birth certificate and, for this purpose, the declaration of the marriage between Lucille and Pablo as bigamous.

The trial court dismissed the petition holding that in a special proceeding for correction of entry, the court, which is not acting as a family court under the Family Code, has no jurisdiction over an action to annul the marriage of Lucille and Pablo, impugn the legitimacy of Patrick, and order Patrick to be subjected to a DNA test, and that the controversy should be ventilated in an ordinary adversarial action.

Issue: 

May the court pass upon the validity of marriage and questions on legitimacy in an action to correct entries in the civil registrar?

Held:

No. In a special proceeding for correction of entry under Rule 108 (Cancellation or Correction of Entries in the Original Registry), the trial court has no jurisdiction to nullify marriages and rule on legitimacy and filiations.

Rule 108 of the Rules of Court vis-a-vis Article 412 of the Civil Code charts the procedure by which an entry in the civil registry may be cancelled or corrected. The proceeding contemplated therein may generally be used only to correct clerical, spelling, typographical and other innocuous errors in the civil registry. A clerical error is one which is visible to the eyes or obvious to the understanding; an error made by a clerk or a transcriber; a mistake in copying or writing, or a harmless change such as a correction of name that is clearly misspelled or of a misstatement of the occupation of the parent. Substantial or contentious alterations may be allowed only in adversarial proceedings, in which all interested parties are impleaded and due process is properly observed. 

The petitioners’ cause of action is actually to seek the declaration of Pablo and Lucille’s marriage as void for being bigamous and impugn Patrick’s legitimacy, which causes of action are governed not by Rule 108 but by A.M. No. 02-11-10-SC which took effect on March 15, 2003, and Art. 171 of the Family Code, respectively; hence, the petition should be filed in a Family Court as expressly provided in said Code. It is well to emphasize that, doctrinally, validity of marriages as well as legitimacy and filiation can be questioned only in a direct action seasonably filed by the proper party, and not through collateral attack such as the petition filed before the court a quo. (Braza vs. Civil Registrar of Negros Occidental, G.R. No. 181174, December 4, 2009)