1. DEATH (not recommended if you force this on your spouse)
2. Divorce (applicable if you are a Muslim and you were married under Islamic rites in the Philippines)
3. Declaration of Nullity of Marriage
4. Annulment
But let's talk about number 3 and number 4, since we don't have to talk about the first and second modes. How similar or different is Declaration of Nullity of Marriage from Annulment? A petition for the Declaration of Nullity of Marriage presupposes that the marriage is VOID. A petition for Annulment applies to marriages which are valid until declared by the court as annulled.
In a Petition for Annulment, the grounds you can use would be as follows:
1. Lack of parental consent if you got married between the age of 18 and 21 years of age.
2. Consent to get married was obtained through fraud.
3. Consent to get married was obtained through force (pikot), intimidation (shot-gun wedding), or undue influence (arranged marriage and you cannot say no)
4. Insanity or unsoundness of mind (those suffering from mental conditions wherein clearly they could not give any consent to anything due to a lack of understanding of what they are getting into)
5. Impotence or physical inability to consummate the marriage (the husband cannot get an erection /cannot have sex with the wife, micro-penis, -we'll discuss this further)
6. Affliction with a sexually transmitted disease (name it. Any STD -now called Sexually Transmitted Infection, can be a ground. Your spouse gave you herpes, HIV, aids, gonorrhea, etc.)
Remember, citing the above grounds necessarily and effectively means that the marriage was Valid in the first place.
On the other hand, the grounds for A Petition for Declaration of Nullity of Marriage would use the following:
1. Underage (one or both of the parties are minors/below 18 years of age
2. No authority to solemnize the marriage (priest/pastor/minister is not authorized by law to marry people -it is the State that gives them legal authority to marry people)
3. Bigamy/Polygamy (getting married to a brand new spouse while current marriage has not been terminated by reason of the 4 ways I've mentioned earlier)
4. No marriage license (this must be secured prior to getting married, but there are exceptions to securing a marriage license. IF you got married without this marriage license, well, this one is for you)
5.Psychological incapacity (we got this from the Catholic church. Either or both spouses are psychologically incapacitated from understanding and executing what is expected of them in a marriage -we will discuss this thoroughly in a different article)
6. Subsequent marriage after failing to record annulment or declaration judgment of annulment or declaration of nullity of marriage with the civil registry
7. INCEST (you can't get married to your sister/brother.. or other close family relation)
8. Breach of public policy (such as killing your parent to marry your step parent.)
How different or similar are the two?
In a Petition for Declaration of Nullity of Marriage, it is as if there never was a marriage from the start. The marriage is considered invalid from the beginning. The parties cannot even ratify (or make it right) it, even if they wanted to. Time cannot also make it right. But if you want to remarry, you must seek judicial declaration despite it being Void from the start.
In a Petition for Annulment, the marriage is valid, yes it is valid, until the court declares it to be invalid. The parties can ratify or make it right by living freely together or through the passage of time.
But in common usage, these two types are generally just called Annulment, but are in fact two (2) separate ways of cutting marital ties depending if the marriage was VOID from the start, or just VOIDABLE (valid unless declared to be invalid).
In Part 2 of this mini series, we will talk in detail about VOIDABLE marriages which are subject to a Petition for Annulment.
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