20/04/2026
ALAM NYO B?
Under Philippine law, particularly the Family Code of the Philippines, children are classified primarily based on the status of their parents at the time of their birth. The classification matters because it affects rights such as legitimacy, use of surname, and inheritance.
The first category is legitimate children. These are children conceived or born during a valid marriage of the parents. They enjoy full rights under the law, including the right to bear the surname of the father and to receive full legitime in succession. The law presumes legitimacy when the child is born within a valid marriage.
The second category is illegitimate children. These are children conceived and born outside a valid marriage. Under the Family Code, they use the surname of the mother, although they may use the fatherโs surname if filiation is expressly recognized (as later allowed by law and jurisprudence). Their inheritance rights are generally one-half of that of legitimate children.
A third concept recognized in law is legitimated children. These are originally illegitimate children who become legitimate by virtue of the subsequent valid marriage of their parents, provided that at the time of conception, the parents had no legal impediment to marry each other. Once legitimated, they are treated as if they were legitimate from birth.
Another category is adopted children, governed by adoption laws such as Republic Act No. 8552 and Republic Act No. 11642. Once adoption is validly completed, the adopted child is deemed a legitimate child of the adopter for all legal intents and purposes.
There is also the concept of acknowledged natural children under the old Civil Code, which historically referred to illegitimate children recognized by their parents. While this classification is largely absorbed into the broader concept of illegitimate children under the Family Code, it still appears in discussions involving older laws or succession rights.
In sum, the present legal framework focuses mainly on legitimate, illegitimate, legitimated, and adopted children, with legitimation and adoption serving as mechanisms to elevate a childโs legal status closer to that of legitimacy.