Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIV!
Quezon City

First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 199

INTRODUCED BY REPRE:

(TATIVE JURDIN JESUS M. ROMUALDO

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This is a refiled bill from the 18" Congress principally authored by Hon. Xavier Jesus D.
Romualdo which remained pending at the Senate.

The University of the Philippines (UPLC) concurred with the proposed abolition of the
reserva troneal by repealing Article 891 of the Civil Code of the Philippines. In their
position paper it made mentioned the observations of Prof. Ruben F. Balane in his article
titled, “The Reserva Troncal: Prospect and Retrospect” published in the Philippine Law
Journal, Volume 58, No. 4, December 1983 which in part presented a very good picture of
what reserva truncal is all about. The gist is presented here:

“The reserva entails and encumbers property. An encumbrance - especially of
the nature of the reserva where the chance of losing the property is very great (since
all that is required is the survival of a single reservatario) — is never conducive to
the development of property, What normally happens is that the reservista ~ faced
with the prospect of losing the property to the other line, and therefore unable to
transmit the property to his own heirs — will allow the property to stagnate, will not
introduce permanent improvements thereon, will refuse to invest on it ~ all in all a
thoroughly bad and economically unsalutary situation.

Another consequence of entailment is that it prevents the free circulation of
property — for how many people will be eager to buy property under a resolutory
condition? — and thus is not conducive to commercial growth. What the reserva
indeed creates is a category of properties in cold storage, so to speak, shunted from
the open market, and waiting to be liberated or, to maintain the metaphor, waiting
to be thawed by their owner's death.

The reserva clutters the successional system. The system of legitimes and of
intestate succession, already complex as it is, is further complicated by the
special rule of the reserva, with its many detailed rules and minute distinctions.
The move should be towafds greater simplification of the successional rules,
particularly in the legitimary portions and in the concurrences of heirs. The



abolition of the reserva troncal will contribute greatly towards rationalizing the
unnecessary intricacies of the law of succession, already referred to by students,
unaffectionately, as "the jungle of Civil Law" (where surely the reserva troncal is
one of the most ferocious tigers).

The reserva troncal operates to penalize marriage and legitimate family
relations. Since it has consistently been held to apply only to those legitimately
related, no reserva would |attach, for instance, to property inherited by an
illegitimate parent from his jillegitimate child, notwithstanding that such property
originated from the other (illegitimate parent). This is one instance where the law
seems to foster adulterous relations. The discri is, to be sure, unintended,
but it is there. It produces certain ridiculous absurdities by imposing its
peculiar burden on the legitime. The effect of the article is to burden the
legitime and spare that which is transmitted by testamentary succession, thus
reversing the policy of the law of protecting the legitime and allowing
encumbrances or conditions to burden the testamentary portion. Or consider
the following situation: the father transmits property by gratuitous title to his son.
The son dies intestate, survived by his maternal uncle as his nearest heir. The
property would have left the line and yet there would be no reserva because the heir
was not “another ascendant." On the other hand, if the mother had survived the son,
she would have inherited the property subject to the reserva. Why is the mother
placed in a worse situation than the uncle? Or stated differently, why should the
legitime be placed under a burden which is not imposed on a collateral relative's
intestate portion? There is really no compelling reason why the law should, in the
particular situation governgd by the reserva, seek to prevent property from
transferring lines. With the dbolition of the reserva viudal this constantly happens,
inasmuch as spouses are cpmpulsory and intestate heirs of each other-so that
succession by a person fram his spouse is a direct transfer of lines, and no
encumbrance is now imposed in such instances. The reserva troncal governs an
indirect transfer, through thd intermediation of the prepositus, so we now have an
encumbrance imposed on an indirect transfer and none on a direct one. Transfer of
property from one line to angther, whether occurring directly or indirectly need not
be frowned upon-these are after all one of the lateral effects (hazards, if one prefers
the term) of that inviolable social institution defined so well in Article 52, Finally,
and I suppose all students of Succession will agree with this, the reserva troncal
has caused a good deal of confusion and controversy because of its difficulty.
The mischief it has caused is incalculable, and surely is not justified by
whatever good it has done. (Emphasis supplied)

Thus, with its nature, the repeal will help release present burdens made by virtue of
the principle of reserve trondal

The support for the passage of this KI by our Honorable Members is highly
enjoined.

JURDIN M. ROMUALDO-


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Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

NINETEE

'H CONGRE!

First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NO. 13 3

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVE JURDIN JESUS M. ROMUALDO

AN ACT
REPEALING THE RESERVA TRONCAL PROVISION PROVIDED FOR
UNDER ARTICLE 891 OF THE REPUBLIC ACT NO. 386, OTHERWISE,
KNOWN AS THE NEW CIVIL CODE OF THE PHILIPPINES

Be it enacted by the Senate|and the House of Representatives of the Philippines
Congress Assembled: |

"TION. 1. Article 891 of Republic Act No. 386, otherwise known as the New
Civil Code of the Philippines, is hereby repealed.

SEC. 2. Separability. - If any portion or provision of this Act is subsequently
declared invalid or unconstitutional, other provisions hereof which are not affected thereby

shall remain in full force and effect.

SEC. 3. Repealing Clause. + All other laws, acts, presidential decrees, executive
orders, presidential proclamations, issuances, rules and regulations or parts thereof which
are contrary to or inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed,

amended, or modifies accordingly.

SEC. 4, Effectivity. - This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its complete
publication in the Official Gazette or in at least one (1) national newspaper of general

circulation.

Approved,