Family Code · Legal Separation

Article 55

Grounds for legal separation

Unamended since 1987

Current text, as of October 15, 2026

A petition for legal separation may be filed on any of the following 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.

For purposes of this Article, the term "child" shall include a child by nature or by adoption. (9a)

Consolidated by Alleba from the text of Executive Order No. 209 (Lawphil), which already includes the changes made by Executive Order No. 227 (1987) before the Code took effect, and the amending Republic Acts in our library. Later amendments made by Presidential Decrees, Batas Pambansa or other executive orders are not included. For information and research only, and not legal advice. For certified copies, refer to the Official Gazette or the issuing agency.