Live-partners have no legal bounds to each other, that is according to the law because you are not recognized as husband and wife. You don’t have any legal relationship although they are obliged to divide equally the valuables they bought together as live-in partners when they separate. These dilemmas are coming from many Filipino citizens who have live-in partners. There’s a confusion because many Filipinos call their live-in partners ‘asawa’ pertaining to a spouse when there’s no marriage included in their union.
Only married people can call their partners ‘spouse.’ To add, only married people have legal obligations to their spouses. Under Article 68 of the Family Code, mutual love, respect and fidelity, living together and giving help and support to one another is obliged for people who are married. Since there’s no legal bind between live-in partners, they’re not enveloped by the Article 68 of the Family Code. If you’re partner is having an affair with another, he/she has no legal obligation to you.
What if you have valuables that you acquired together? This is where Article 147 and 148 comes of the Family Code comes in. Under Article 147, if a man and a woman are living together, their salaries and properties will be equally shared between them but other than that like for cases of infidelity, there really is no way to hold your partner accountable for such act. What you can do is talk to your partner and maybe you can work something out since you’re already living together and acting husband and wife. Living together under no legal bind can prove to be worrisome in the end if you have properties together and your partner cheats on you. Since there is no legal obligation, there’s nothing you can do about other than talk it through.
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