Title X -- Funerals
Article 305. The duty and the right to make arrangements for the funeral of a relative shall be in accordance with the order established for support, under Article 294 (now Article 199 of the Family Code). In case of descendants of the same degree, or of brothers and sisters, the oldest shall be preferred. In case of ascendants, the paternal shall have a better right.
Article 199 of the Family Code: Whenever two or more persons are obliged to give support, the liability shall devolve upon the following persons in the order herein provided:
(1) The Spouse;
(2) The descendants in the nearest degree;
(3) The ascendants in the nearest degree; and
(4) The brothers and sister.
Article 306. Every funeral shall be in keeping with the social position of the deceased.
Funeral in Accordance With Social Position
- the higher the standing of the deceased in life the more dignified and expensive should his funeral be, as a general rule. The Revised Penal Code, however, prohibits the pompous and elaborate funeral of a criminal who has been given the death penalty. This is for the purpose of not giving undue publicity to the notoriety in life of the criminal.
- Article 2165: “When funeral expenses are borne by a third person, without the knowledge of those relatives who were obliged to give support to the deceased, said relatives shall reimburse the third person should the latter claim reimbursement.”
Funerals
- the incidents of funerals are governed by the law of the country where the body is to be buried.
- incidental to funerals are the so-called “funeral expenses,” i.e., the money expended in procuring the interment, cremation, or other disposition of a corpse, including suitable monument, perpetual care of burial lot and entertainment of those participating in the wake.
Definition of Terms
A. Burial - interment of remains in a grave, tomb or the sea.
B. Burial Grounds - cemetery, memorial park or any place duly authorized by law for permanent disposal of the dead.
C. Catacomb - place of burial consisting of galleries or passages with side recesses for tombs.
D. Cemetery - public or private land used for the burial of the dead and other uses dedicated for cemetery purposes, to include landscaped grounds, driveways, walks, columbaria, crematories, mortuaries, mausoleums, niches, graveyards and public comfort rooms.
E. Cinerary Remains/Cremains - the ashes resulting from cremation of a dead body.
F. Cremation - a process that reduces human remains to bone fragments of fine sand or ashes through combustion and dehydration.
G. Crematorium - any designated place duly authorized by law to cremate dead persons.
H. Embalming - preparing, disinfecting and preserving a dead body before its final disposal.
I. Funeral Establishments - includes funeral parlors, funeral chapels and any similar place used in the preparation, storage and care of the body of a deceased person for burial or cremation.
J. Memorial Park - a cemetery with well kept landscaped lawns and wide roadways and footpaths separating the areas assigned for ground interments, tombs, mausoleums and columbaria; with or without a mortuary chapel; and provided with systematic supervision and maintenance.
K. Morgue - a place in which dead bodies are temporarily kept pending identification or burial.
L. Niche - interment space for remains.
M. Public Cemetery - a burial ground, government or privately-owned, open for general use of the public.
N. Private Burying Ground or Place of Enshrinement - a family or individual or other similar exclusive burial ground established and authorized subject to these rules and regulations.
O. Remains - the body or parts of the body of a dead person including the cremated remains.
P. Undertaker - a duly licensed person who practices undertaking.
Q. Undertaking - the care, transport and disposal of the body of a deceased person by any means other than embalming.
Burial Requirements
A. Death Certificate Requirements:
(1) No remains shall be buried or cremated without death certificate;
(2) The death certificate must be issued by the attending government or private physician;
(3) In extreme cases, where no physician in attendance, it shall be issued by the:
a) City/municipal health officer,
b) Mayor, or
c) The secretary of the municipal board, or
d) A councilor of the municipality where the death occurred
The basis of the death certificate shall be an affidavit duly executed by a reliable informant stating the circumstances regarding the cause of death; and
(4) The death shall be reported to the local health officer within 48 hours after death and the death certificate shall be forwarded to the local civil registrar concerned within 30 days after death for registration.
B. Shipment of Remains:
- the following are the requirements in the shipment or transfer of cadaver from one place to another:
(1) Death certificate must be secured;
(2) Transfer permit must be secured from the local health authority of the point of origin;
(3) The remains must be properly embalmed;
(4) Transit permit shall also be secured from places where the remains will pass if local ordinances of such place so require; and
(5) Shipments of remains to and from abroad shall be governed by the rules and regulations of the National Quarantine Office.
C. Grave Requirements:
(1) Grave where remains are buried shall be at least one and one half meters deep and filled well and firmly; and
(2) No remains shall be buried in a grave where water table is less than two meters deep from natural ground surface.
D. Cost of Burial
(1) The cost of burial of a dead person shall be borne by the nearest kin in the following order:
a) The spouse;
b) The descendants in the nearest degree;
c) The ascendant in the nearest degree; and
d) The brothers and sister.
(2) In the absence of the nearest kin above or if the kin is not financially capable of defraying the expenses, the cost shall be borne by the city or municipal government.
(3) Every funeral shall be in keeping with the customs and traditions of the deceased and in accordance with the expressed wishes and religious beliefs of the deceased provided it is in accordance with law.
E. Burial of Remains:
- the burial of remains in city or municipal burial grounds and similar burial grounds like cemetery/memorial parks, etc. Shall not be prohibited on account of race, nationality, religion or political persuasion.
F. Medico-legal Cases
- if the local health officer who issues a death certificate has reasons to believe or suspect that the cause of death was due to violence or crime, he shall notify immediately the authorities of the Philippine National Police or National Bureau of Investigation concerned.
Article 307. The funeral shall be in accordance with the expressed wishes of the deceased. In the absence of such expression, his religious beliefs or affiliation shall determine the funeral rites. In case of doubt, the form of the funeral shall be decided upon by the person obliged to make arrangements for the same, after consulting the other members of the family.
How the Funeral Rites Shall be Conducted - Order of Preference
A. Express wishes of the deceased;
B. Religious beliefs or affiliation, and
C. Desire of person obliged to make funeral arrangements - after consulting the other members of the family.
Article 308. No human remains shall be retained, interred, disposed of or exhumed without the consent of the persons mentioned in Articles 249 (now Article 100 of the Family Code) and 305.
Disposition of the Remains
A. Retaining,
B. Interring,
C. Disposin, and
D. Exhuming of the human remains.
Article 309. Any person who shows disrespect to the dead, or wrongfully interferes with a funeral shall be liable to the family of the deceased for damages, material and moral.
Article 310. The construction of a tombstone or mausoleum shall be deemed a part of the funeral expenses, and shall be chargeable to the conjugal partnership property, if the deceased is one of the spouses.
Expenses for Mausoleum
Who pays for the mausoleum of the widow?
Answer: Her own property, for here conjugal partnership had long been dissolved.
Title XVI
CIVIL REGISTER
Proclamation No. 326 - Declaring as a National State Policy the Registration of Births, Deaths, Marriages and Foundlings.
Article 407. Acts, events and judicial decrees concerning the civil status of persons shall be recorded in the civil register.
Probative Value of Entries in the Civil Registry
- although the Civil Registry is an official record, still the entries made therein are only prima facie evidence of the facts stated. Consequently, the correction and cancellation thereof, in proper cases and by judicial order, is allowed.
Rule Under Presidential Decree 603 Regarding Non-Disclosure of Birth Records
Article 7. Non-disclosure of Birth Records. - The record of a person’s birth shall be kept strictly confidential and no information relating thereto shall be issued except on the request of any of the following:
(1) The person himself, or any person authorized by him;
(2) His spouse, his parent or parents, his direct descendants, or the guardian or institution legally in charge of him if he is a minor;
(3) The court or proper public official whenever absolutely necessary in administrative, judicial or other official proceedings to determine the identity of the child’s parents or other circumstances surrounding his birth; and
(4) In case of the person’s death, the nearest of kin.
Any person violating the prohibition shall suffer the penalty of imprisonment of at least two months or a fine in an amount not exceeding five hundred pesos, or both, in the discretion of the court.
Article 408. The following shall be entered in the civil register:
(1) Births; (2) marriages; (3) deaths; (4) legal separations; (5) annulment of marriages; (6) judgments declaring marriages void from the beginning; (7) legitimations; (8) adoptions; (9) acknowledgments of natural children; (10) naturalization; (11) loss; or (12) recovery of citizenship; (13) civil interdiction; (14) judicial determination of filiation; (15) voluntary emancipation of a minor; and (16) changes of name.
The Recording of Names
The name that appears in the Civil Register should be considered as the real name of a person, for all legal purposes. When there is a change of name, the old name is not erased or corrected; the new name is simply annotated in the register. To the same effect, the supplying of a name that had been left BLANK in the original recording of birth may be done by judicial order due publication of the petition and proper hearing.
Value of Certification
A certification of live birth of a child is not a conclusive evidence of birth; it is only prima facie or disputable. This is because the Local Civil Registrar merely receives the information given him. He does not make any verification.
“Death Certificate” Defined
It is a document issued by the attending physician or, in his absence, by the city/municipal health officer or other duly authorized government official, using the prescribed form certifying the death of a person.
Article 409. In cases of legal separation, adoption, naturalization and other judicial orders mentioned in the preceding article, it shall be the duty of the clerk of the court which issued the decree to ascertain whether the same has been registered, and if this has not been done, to send a copy of said decree to the civil registry of the city or municipality where the court is functioning.
Article 410. The books making up the civil register and all documents relating thereto shall be considered public documents and shall be prima facie evidence of the facts therein contained.
Article 411. Every civil registrar shall be civilly responsible for any unauthorized alteration made in any civil register, to any person suffering damage thereby. However, the civil registrar may exempt himself from such liability if he proves that he has taken every reasonable precaution to prevent the unlawful alteration.
Article 412. No entry in a civil register shall be changed or corrected, without a judicial order.
Errors Contemplated
The errors which can be corrected in mere summary proceedings are clerical or typographical errors, not those on such important things as legitimacy or nationality or other controversial matters. Similarly, the changing of an allegedly erroneous name registered is a SUBSTANTIAL change because the identity of a parent is affected. The proper step would be an appropriate proceeding, not a summary one. Be it noted therefore that if the error is a substantial or material one, same can still be corrected by a court judgment -- provided that the action is not summary in nature. More detailed and appropriate proceedings are required.
A harmless change in the name that has been clearly mis-spelled may however be allowed under Article 312. Where the name appearing in the Civil Registry is not incorrect but merely incomplete, such incompleteness is not sufficient to authorize correction thereof, especially if the purpose is to secure authority to use an alias. However, where no controversial issue exists, and the correction has for its purpose to have the records state a fact already established by competent authority, the same should be granted. A petition should also be granted when in matters of paternity, the registrar had NO right to record the name of the alleged father, when it was only the mother who appeared at the office of the Civil Registrar and she had no authority to reveal the name of the said father. However, ordinarily, so long as the entry could property be made by the Registrar, “one’s filiation or parentage appearing in a public record where the law requires it to be entered, may not be changed except in a proper proceeding where the person concerned is given an appropriate time to be heard.”
Article 413. All matter pertaining to the registration of civil status shall be governed by special laws.
Special Laws on Registration
Act 3753 - Civil Registry Act
Republic Act 9048 - An Act Authorizing the City of Municipal Civil Registrar or the Consul General to Correct a Clerical or Typographical Error in an Entry and/or Change of First Name or Nickname in the Civil Register Without Need of a Judicial Order Amending for this Purpose Articles 376 and 412 of the Civil Code of the Philippines.
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