Who Inherits Under Philippine Law — Compulsory Heirs and Legitime

In short

Compulsory heirs: Legitimate children and descendants; in their absence, legitimate parents and ascendants; the surviving spouse; and illegitimate children.
The legitime: The portion of the estate the law reserves for compulsory heirs. You cannot give it away by will.
No will?: Intestate succession applies, and the Civil Code fixes who gets what.
Illegitimate children: Are compulsory heirs, each entitled to one-half the share of a legitimate child.

The estate is divided in two

Start with the concept that explains everything else. A Philippine estate is conceptually split into the legitime — the portion reserved by law for compulsory heirs, which no will can touch — and the free portion, which the testator may dispose of as they please. If there is no will, the whole estate is distributed under the rules of intestate succession.

One more thing must happen before either calculation: if the deceased was married, the property regime is liquidated first. Under absolute community, the community property is divided and the deceased's one-half share is what forms part of the estate. Under conjugal partnership of gains, exclusive property plus the deceased's half of the conjugal gains forms the estate. Getting this step wrong doubles or halves everyone's share.

Who the compulsory heirs are

Legitimate children and descendants, with respect to their legitimate parents and ascendants.
In default of legitimate children and descendants, the legitimate parents and ascendants.
The widow or widower.
Illegitimate children.

Legal basis: Civil Code art. 887. Adopted children inherit as legitimate children of the adopter under the adoption laws.

Article 992 — the “iron curtain”, and what the Supreme Court has done to it

Article 992 of the Civil Code provides that an illegitimate child has no right to inherit ab intestato from the legitimate children and relatives of their father or mother, nor shall such children or relatives inherit in the same manner from the illegitimate child. The Supreme Court has itself described the prohibition as an “iron curtain” between marital and nonmarital relatives. For a long time it was applied across the board, including to a nonmarital grandchild seeking to represent their parent in the estate of a grandparent.

That last application no longer holds. In Aquino v. Aquino, G.R. Nos. 208912 and 209018 (7 December 2021), the Court, sitting en banc, held that grandparents and other direct ascendants are outside the scope of the “relatives” contemplated by article 992, because a child — whatever the circumstances of their birth — is a blood relative of their own parent and of that parent's ascendants. On that construction a child whose parents were not married to each other may inherit from their grandparent by right of representation, regardless of the marital status of the grandparent at the birth of the child's parent. The Court framed the reading around the best interest of the child and the constitutional and statutory policy against discriminating on the basis of birth.

Who the nonmarital child is claiming from	Position
Their own parent	They inherit as a compulsory heir. Article 992 was never about this, and the legitime rules apply
A grandparent or other direct ascendant, by representing a predeceased parent	Article 992 does not bar the claim, following Aquino v. Aquino — direct ascendants are outside the “relatives” the article speaks of. Filiation still has to be proved in the ordinary way
The marital collateral relatives of their parent — the parent's siblings, nephews, nieces	Article 992 has not been repealed, and the barrier in the collateral line remains. Bills to repeal it have been filed in Congress but none has become law

Legal basis: Civil Code art. 992; Aquino v. Aquino, G.R. Nos. 208912 and 209018, 7 December 2021, and arts. 970–977 on representation. This is a live and developing area, and the outcome in a particular estate turns on who survives and on proof of filiation — take advice on your own facts rather than relying on a general table.

Intestate succession: the order

1
1. Legitimate children and descendants
They exclude the ascendants. They inherit together with the surviving spouse and any illegitimate children.
2
2. Legitimate parents and ascendants
Only if there are no legitimate descendants. They inherit with the surviving spouse and any illegitimate children.
3
3. Illegitimate children
They inherit in their own right alongside the categories above, and take the whole estate together with the spouse if there are no legitimate descendants or ascendants.
4
4. The surviving spouse
Inherits with whichever of the above survive, and alone if none do — subject to the brothers and sisters where applicable.
5
5. Brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces
Only where there are no descendants, ascendants, illegitimate children or spouse — or, in some combinations, alongside a surviving spouse.
6
6. Other collateral relatives to the fifth degree, then the State
Failing everyone above, the estate escheats to the State.

Common family situations

Who survives	How the estate is divided (intestate)
Spouse and 3 legitimate children	The spouse takes a share equal to one legitimate child — so four equal shares
3 legitimate children, no spouse	Equally among the three
Spouse only	The entire estate
Spouse and legitimate parents	One-half to the spouse, one-half to the parents
2 legitimate children and 1 illegitimate child	Each legitimate child takes twice what the illegitimate child takes
Spouse, 1 legitimate child and 1 illegitimate child	Legitimate child one-half; surviving spouse one-quarter; illegitimate child one-quarter, taken from the free portion — see the worked examples below
Spouse, 1 legitimate child and 2 illegitimate children	Legitimate child one-half; surviving spouse one-quarter; the two illegitimate children one-eighth each, the free portion being divided between them (Macalinao v. Macalinao, G.R. No. 250613, 3 April 2024)
No spouse, no children, both parents alive	Equally between the parents
No spouse, no children, no parents, 2 siblings	Equally between the siblings; the children of a predeceased sibling take that sibling's share by representation

Legal basis: Civil Code arts. 887–908 (legitime) and arts. 978–1014 (intestate succession). Where shares must be reconciled against the legitime, the arithmetic can become genuinely complex — treat this table as an orientation, not a computation.

One legitimate child, a spouse, and illegitimate children — the arithmetic

This is the combination most often computed wrongly, including in tables that circulate widely. The intuitive method — give the legitimate child one-half, give the spouse a share equal to a legitimate child, then add a half-share for each illegitimate child — produces totals of more than the whole estate, which cannot be right. The Civil Code resolves it with a fixed order of priority rather than a set of independent ratios.

The legitime of the legitimate child comes first. With one legitimate child, that is one-half of the estate (art. 888).
The legitime of the surviving spouse comes next and must be fully satisfied. Where there is only one legitimate child, article 892 gives the spouse one-quarter of the estate — not a share equal to the child. The share-equal-to-a-child rule applies where there are two or more legitimate children.
The illegitimate children's legitimes are taken from what remains at the free disposal of the testator. Article 895 is explicit that the total legitime of the illegitimate children may not exceed that free portion, and that the surviving spouse's legitime must first be fully satisfied.

Survivors	Legitimate child	Surviving spouse	Illegitimate children	Free portion left
1 legitimate child, spouse	1/2	1/4	—	1/4
1 legitimate child, spouse, 1 illegitimate child	1/2	1/4	1/4	nil
1 legitimate child, spouse, 2 illegitimate children	1/2	1/4	1/8 each	nil
1 legitimate child, spouse, 3 illegitimate children	1/2	1/4	1/12 each	nil
2 legitimate children, spouse, 1 illegitimate child	1/4 each	1/4	1/8	1/8

Legal basis: Civil Code arts. 888, 892 and 895; Family Code art. 176 as amended, on the legitime of an illegitimate child being one-half of that of a legitimate child. The Supreme Court applied this order of priority in Macalinao v. Macalinao, G.R. No. 250613 (3 April 2024), where the qualified beneficiaries were the surviving legitimate spouse, one legitimate child and two illegitimate children, and the shares were fixed at one-half to the legitimate child, one-quarter to the surviving spouse, and one-eighth to each illegitimate child — the legitimate child's and the spouse's legitimes being satisfied first, and the illegitimate children taking from the remaining quarter.

Representation

If a child dies before the parent, that child's own children step into their place and take the share their parent would have received. This is representation, and it operates in the direct descending line without limit, and in the collateral line only in favour of the children of brothers and sisters. It applies to intestate succession and to the legitime — but a person who repudiates an inheritance cannot be represented, and a representative inherits by right of representation rather than in their own right.

Collation: the lifetime gift that comes back

Parents routinely help one child during their lifetime — a lot to build on, a deposit for a house, tuition abroad — and assume the matter is closed. Philippine succession law usually does not agree. Collation is the rule that brings certain lifetime gifts back into the computation when the estate is divided, so that the child who received an advance does not also take a full share of what is left.

Every compulsory heir who succeeds must bring into the mass of the estate the property or right they received from the decedent during the decedent's lifetime by donation or other gratuitous title, so it can be counted in computing the legitimes.
The gift is treated as an advance on that heir's inheritance and is charged against their share.
The decedent can expressly provide that a donation is not to be collated — but only to the extent that it does not impair the legitime of the other compulsory heirs.
Donations to strangers are not collated, but they can be reduced if they turn out to be inofficious, meaning they exceeded the free portion.
Expenses for support, education up to a certain level, medical care, apprenticeship and ordinary equipment are generally not collated; the Civil Code draws careful distinctions here.

Legal basis: Civil Code arts. 1061–1077 (collation) and art. 771 (reduction of inofficious donations).

Disqualification and disinheritance

Incapacity by unworthiness — for example, an heir convicted of an attempt on the life of the decedent, or who accused the decedent of a crime carrying a serious penalty where the accusation was found groundless.
Disinheritance in a will, but only for a cause expressly allowed by the Civil Code, and only where the will states the cause.
Repudiation, which must be made in a public or authentic instrument or by petition to the court.
Predecease, which opens the door to representation.

Legal basis: Civil Code of the Philippines, Book III on succession — particularly arts. 774–782 (general provisions), 887–908 (compulsory heirs and legitime), 915–923 (disinheritance), 960–1014 (intestate succession), 970–977 (representation), 992 (the iron curtain rule), 1041–1057 (acceptance and repudiation), 1061–1077 (collation); Family Code arts. 75–148 on property regimes.

Liquidating the property regime first

This step comes before any share is computed, and skipping it is the most common arithmetical error in Philippine estate settlement. When a married person dies, half of what the couple owned together was never theirs to leave — it already belonged to the surviving spouse. Only the deceased's half enters the estate.

Regime	Applies to	What enters the estate
Absolute community of property	Marriages from 3 August 1988 with no marriage settlement	The deceased's one-half of the community property, plus any property excluded from the community
Conjugal partnership of gains	Marriages before 3 August 1988 with no settlement, or where chosen by settlement	The deceased's exclusive property, plus their one-half of the net gains of the partnership
Complete separation of property	Where a marriage settlement provides for it	All of the deceased's own property
Unmarried decedent	n/a	Everything the deceased owned

Legal basis: Family Code arts. 75–148. The Family Code took effect on 3 August 1988; marriages celebrated before that date default to conjugal partnership of gains.

So a surviving spouse receives twice, from two different sources: their own half by liquidation of the property regime, and then their share as a compulsory heir out of the deceased's half. Families who forget the first step consistently under-count the spouse and over-count the children.

The same step decides the estate tax base, because only the deceased's share is taxed. It is worth doing carefully and in writing, listing which assets were exclusive to each spouse and which formed part of the community or the partnership gains, before anyone computes a single share.

What people get wrong

Thinking a will can leave everything to one person. It cannot, if compulsory heirs survive.
Forgetting to liquidate the marital property regime before computing shares.
Assuming an illegitimate child gets nothing. They are a compulsory heir.
Assuming the surviving spouse takes everything. That is only true where no descendants, ascendants or illegitimate children survive.
Treating a lifetime gift to one child as free of consequence. Donations to compulsory heirs are generally collated as advances on the inheritance.
Assuming a will avoids court. It does the opposite — a will must be probated, while an intestate estate with agreeing heirs can be settled extrajudicially.
Waiting years to settle, and letting the estate tax accrue surcharge and interest.

Frequently asked questions

+Who inherits if there is no will in the Philippines?

Intestate succession applies. Legitimate children and descendants inherit first, together with the surviving spouse and any illegitimate children. In the absence of descendants, the legitimate parents and ascendants inherit with the spouse and illegitimate children. Failing all of those, siblings and other collateral relatives, and ultimately the State.

+Does an illegitimate child inherit in the Philippines?

Yes, from their own parent: an illegitimate child is a compulsory heir, with a legitime of one-half of that of a legitimate child, subject to article 895 — the surviving spouse's legitime is satisfied first and the illegitimate children's legitimes are taken from the free portion and cannot exceed it. Article 992 still bars an illegitimate child from inheriting ab intestato from the marital collateral relatives of their parent. But it no longer bars a claim against a direct ascendant: in Aquino v. Aquino (G.R. Nos. 208912 and 209018, 7 December 2021) the Supreme Court held that grandparents and other direct ascendants fall outside the “relatives” article 992 speaks of, so a nonmarital child may inherit from a grandparent by right of representation.

+How much does the surviving spouse get?

It depends on who else survives. With legitimate children, the spouse takes a share equal to one legitimate child. With legitimate parents and no children, one-half. Alone, the entire estate. The marital property regime must be liquidated first.

+Can I disinherit my child?

Only for a cause expressly listed in the Civil Code — an attempt on your life, maltreatment, an unfounded accusation of a serious crime, refusal of support without justification, and a few others — and the will must state the cause. Otherwise the legitime stands.

+What is the legitime?

The portion of the estate that the law reserves for compulsory heirs and that the testator cannot dispose of. Its size depends on which heirs survive: with legitimate children alone, for example, it is one-half of the estate.

+Do grandchildren inherit?

Yes, by representation, if their parent (your child) died before you. They step into that parent's place and divide the share that parent would have received.

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