Please be informed of Article 2035 of the New Civil Code, which states that:
"Art. 2035. No compromise upon the following questions shall be valid:
"(1) The civil status of persons;
"(2) The validity of a marriage or a legal separation;
"(3) Any ground for legal separation;
"(4) Future support;
"(5) The jurisdiction of courts;
"(6) Future legitime. (1814a)"
Based on the above-stated law, there shall be no valid compromise, and, by implication, no waiver of the validity of a marriage.
Although Article 6 of the same Code provides that rights may be waived, the said waiver must not be contrary to law, public order, public policy, morals, or good customs, or prejudicial to a third person with a right recognized by law.
Since an such compromise is about the validity of a marriage, such agreement shall be void.
Further, in the case of Landicho vs. Relova, et al., (GR L-22579, Feb. 23, 1968), the Supreme Court, through Associate Justice Enrique Fernando, held that:
"As was correctly stressed in the answer of respondent Judge relying on Viada, parties to a marriage should not be permitted to judge for themselves its nullity, only competent courts having such authority. Prior to such declaration of nullity, the validity of the first marriage is beyond question. A party who contracts a second marriage then assumes the risk of being prosecuted for bigamy."
Thus, parties to the marriage should not be permitted to judge for themselves its nullity, for this must first be submitted to the judgment of competent courts.
Only when the nullity of a marriage is so declared by the court can it be held as void. So long as there is no such declaration, the presumption is that the marriage exists and is valid.
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