1. Contracted by any party below 18 years of age.

A Filipino is considered as to have entered the legal age when he reaches the age of eighteen (18)
years. Once 18, he is deemed legally capacitated to enter into contracts, including the special contract
of marriage.

It is of no moment if a Filipino below 18 years receives the consent of his parents to get married. The
legal capacity must, by itself, belong to the marrying parties, and not by those who may grant their
consent to the marriage.

The marriage is void whether one or both parties are aged below 18 at the time the marriage was
celebrated.

Article 2. No marriage shall be valid, unless these essential requisites are present:
(1) Legal capacity of the contracting parties who must be a male and a female; and
(2) Consent freely given in the presence of the solemnizing officer. (53a)

Legal Capacity.
Legal capacity means that the parties must have attained the age requirement and that there should be no legal
impediment to marry each other. The minimum marriageable age is 18.
So that if a man and a woman at the age of seventeen (17) marry each other with the consent of their parents,
the marriage is void because they must be eighteen (18) years of age as required by Article 5 of the Family Code.
They have no legal capacity.

The minimum marriageable age is 18 years (Article 5, Family Code), so that if a party or both of them is/are
below this age would contract marriage, even with the consent of their parents, as well as all the other requisites of
marriage, the same would still be void because of lack of capacity. Even if the marriage is celebrated abroad and
valid there as such, the same would still be void since the law that determines the validity of the marriage of the
Filipino is his/her national law. (Art. 15, New Civil Code; Arts. 26[par. 1], 35[1], Family Code).

This void marriage cannot even be made valid by cohabitation, for a void marriage is void.

Article 5. Any male or female of the age of eighteen years (18) or upwards not under any of
the impediments mentioned in Articles 37 and 38, may contract marriage. (54a)

Rules on validity of marriage.

The marriage is valid if there is consent of the parents. Without the consent of the parents, the marriage would
only be voidable. If it is without the consent of the parties, the marriage is void.
If the parties to a marriage are below the ages of eighteen (18), even with the consent of their parents, the
marriage would still be void. This is because they lack the legal capacity to marry.

Reason for invalidity if below 18 of age.

The basic reason why the law requires that the parties to a marriage must have attained the age of 18 years is
that extreme youth may not lend stability to the marriage and the family. Solidarity of the family is a concern of the
State as expressed in the Constitution making it a policy of the State to preserve the family as a basic social
institution. Marriages have failed, families have been broken because of extreme irresponsibility of the spouses due
to age. So, the law requires some degree of maturity. In fact, the requirement that they must be at least 18 years is a
departure from the Civil Code provisions requiring that the woman then must be at least 14 years of age and the man
16 years of age at the time of the marriage. The framers of the Family Code felt that the 14-16 year requirement was
too low as the parties were too young.

Suppose A in the problem above was 27 years old and B was only 17 years of age, the marriage
would still be void because the law requires that both contracting parties must have legal capacity to
contract marriage.

Article 35. The following marriages shall be void from the beginning:
(1) Those contracted by any party below eighteen years of age even with the consent of
parents or guardians;
Those solemnized by any person not legally authorized to perform marriages unless such marriages
were contracted with either or both parties believing in good faith that the solemnizing officer had
the legal authority to do so;
(3) Those solemnized without a license, except those cov-ered by the preceding chapter;
(4) Those bigamous or polygamous marriages not falling under Article 41;
(5) Those contracted through mistake of one contracting party as to the identity of the
other;
(6) Those subsequent marriages that are void under Article 53.

(1) Below 18 years

One of the requirements of a valid marriage is legal capacity, that without it, the marriage is void. Age is not
component of legal capacity. So that, if the parties or anyone of them is below 18 years, even with the consent of the
parents, the marriage is void for lack of legal capacity. As said elsewhere, extreme youth of the parties to the
marriage may not lend stability to the family.

Illustration:
A and B, both 17 years of age and Filipinos met in Hongkong. They got married with the consent
of their parents. The marriage is void for lack of legal capacity. Even if Hongkong laws recognize their
marriage as valid, the same would still be void in the Philippines because it is Philippine law that
determines their legal capacity. (Article 15, New Civil Code). Furthermore, even if valid where
celebrated, Articles 26(paragraph 1) and 35(1) of the Family Code provides that their marriage is void.