Main Topic: PATERNITY AND FILIATION
Sub-topic: LEGITIMATE CHILDREN
Art. 256. The child shall be presumed legitimate, although the mother may have
declared against its legitimacy or may have been
sentenced as an adulterous. (109)
DISCUSSION/EXPLANATION:
The mother is estopped to disclaim the legitimacy of the child as far as she is concerned under the above article.
The declaration of the mother against the legitimacy of the child is simply considered as not made. Such article is inadmissible as evidence rebut the presumption of legitimacy because the husband, for reasons of his own, may have forced or threatened the wife or the wife due to resentment, hate or some evil motive may have made the declaration in the certificate of birth of the child. There may also have been collusion between the husband and wife. Even the wife has been harboured an adulterer, she herself would not know for sure whether it was the husband or her paramour who generated life on her womb.
Hence, in general, good moral and public policy require that a mother should not be permitted to assert the illegitimacy of the child born in wedlock in order to obtain some benefit for herself.
The law is not willing that the child is declared illegitimate to suit the whims and purposes of either parents, not merely upon evidence that no actual act of sexual intercourse occurred between the husband and wife or at about the time the wife became pregnant. Thus where the husband denies having any intercourse with his wife, the child is presumed legitimate.
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