G.R. No.

159031 June 23, 2014

NOEL A. LASANAS, Petitioner,
vs.
PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINES, Respondent.

One of these requisites is a valid marriage license except in those instances

when this requirement may be excused. There having been no marriage
license nor affidavit of cohabitation presented to the priest who presided over
the religious rites, the religious wedding cannot be treated as a valid marriage
in itself.

G.R. No. 183896 January 30, 2013

SYED AZHAR ABBAS, Petitioner,
vs.
GLORIA GOO ABBAS, Respondent.

Syed turned to the office of the Municipal Civil Registrar of Carmona, Cavite
which had allegedly issued said license. It was there that he requested
certification that no such license was issued. In the case of Republic v.
Court of Appeals43 such certification was allowed, as permitted by Sec. 29,
Rule 132 of the Rules of Court, which reads:

SEC. 28. Proof of lack of record. – A written statement signed

by an officer having the custody of an official record or by his
deputy that after diligent search, no record or entry of a
specified tenor is found to exist in the records of his office,
accompanied by a certificate as above provided, is admissible
as evidence that the records of his office contain no such
record or entry.

In the case of Republic, in allowing the certification of the Civil Registrar of

Pasig to prove the non-issuance of a marriage license, the Court held:

The above Rule authorized the custodian of the

documents to certify that despite diligent search, a particular
document does not exist in his office or that a particular entry of
a specified tenor was not to be found in a register. As
custodians of public documents, civil registrars are public
officers charged with the duty, inter alia, of maintaining a
register book where they are required to enter all
applications for marriage licenses, including the names of the
applicants, the date the marriage license was issued and such
other relevant data.44
The Court held in that case that the certification issued by the civil registrar
enjoyed probative value, as his duty was to maintain records of data relative
to the issuance of a marriage license.

In the case of Cariño v. Cariño (G.R. No. 132529. February 2, 2001)

following the case of Republic,48 it was held that the certification of the Local
Civil Registrar that their office had no record of a marriage license was
adequate to prove the non-issuance of said license. The case of Cariño
further held that the presumed validity of the marriage of the parties had been
overcome, and that it became the burden of the party alleging a valid
marriage to prove that the marriage was valid, and that the required marriage
license had been secured.