Protecting Tomorrow’s Hope Today: The Philippine Legal Perspective from the Tender-Age Presumption to Shared Parenting

Abstract

Philippine private law promotes the rights and interests of children. It emphasizes that their welfare is paramount in all questions relating to their care, custody, education and property, and enumerates the duties and obligations of parents to safeguard and protect them by ensuring their moral and mental development. However, the Philippines has no law which provides for or recognizes shared parenting. Neither is there any law which recognizes divorce, civil partnerships, or same-sex marriages. Thus there is no express rule which specifically applies to the children of such relationships. Nevertheless, the absence of any Philippine law on divorce, same-sex relationships, civil partnerships, or shared parenting does not mean that the Philippine legal framework has not considered, and does not protect the best interests of the children of these and all other relationships. But this should not stop us from looking for other ways to further enhance the protections that our children are legally entitled to. Since Philippine private law is based on the Spanish Civil Code, their legal commonalities and shared histories should be more than enough impetus for Philippine lawmakers and policymakers to look into Spanish law, for the purpose of further enhancing and protecting the best interests of the Filipino child.