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The father of my daughter acknowledged her and signed the affidavit of paternity at the back of my daughter's birth certificate. We are not married and we are now separated. Unlike other single moms, I am not after his support. Even when we were together, he doesn't give any support for us. Can I deny communication between him and my daughter? I am thinking of cutting any communication with him. Is this legal? If I bring my daughter abroad, would I need his permission? I am a Chinese citizen with an ACR/ICR and my daughter also has one now since she is technically a Chinese citizen too. Can you enlighten me on this?

Thank you so much.

Sincerely.

Che

Dear Che,

Since you are not married to the father of your daughter, your daughter falls under the category of illegitimate children. Under our Family Code, illegitimate children shall bear the surname and shall be under the parental authority of their mother. It would not make any difference whether your daughter was acknowledged by her father in her birth certificate or not. Since your daughter is under your sole parental authority, you do not need her father's permission in case you would bring her out of the country.
As for your plan to deny the father the right to communicate with your daughter, you may do so because you have sole parental authority over your daughter.

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LEGAL QUERY #2 - I was forced to abort my child...

Dear Atty. Pulido:

I am a single mother with a 7 year old daughter. The father of the child has abandoned us. Two years ago, I met a married man and lived with him after his wife left him when she learned about our relationship. I thought I could "make him mine" by allowing myself to get pregnant. Instead however, he dragged me to an abortionist. I lost the baby. My family got extremely mad and threatened him not to abandon me. Presently, we are still living together. Though we have our share of happy moments, he treats me though with rudeness and time and again, I would always catch him getting into a relationship with other women. I always remind him of the threats my family has made. I "police" him by opening his cellphone messages, sometimes answering them to check if it came from his other women. I forced him to give me the password to his email address to check if he gets mails from them. He always lies, he goes out of town with his girlfriends in the guise of out of town work assignments. Violent arguments always erupts everytime I discover anything that might have come from other women (messages, gifts...).

One time, when I learned he has a girlfriend, I wanted to leave him. I personally confronted him and the woman through text messages. He begged me to stay. The woman sent her message to me saying he only wanted me for domestic chores and is using me for his selfish purposes. But he denied, he said he loved me.

My question now is, what is my right as a live-in partner of this man? I cannot marry him because he is still legally married to his former wife. What remedy do I have to make him answer for the abortion he had forced on me? On the other hand, what can he do in case he uses the threats me and my family has made on him as his defense?

I love the man and though we have been through many ups and downs, I have no intention of leaving him. His family doesn't want me but I want to stick it out with him inspite of his womanizing. After what I have been through, I am afraid no guy will take me seriously.

Can you please help me? Thank you in advance.

Julia

Dear Julia,

Since you are not married to your partner, I am afraid you do not have the equivalent rights of a wife. As for the abortion he had forced on you, if you could prove that he forced you to abort your baby and that the abortion was really done against your will, you can file a criminal case against him. You must be able to prove though that you did not consent at all to the abortion and that he practically dragged you so that abortion can be performed on you. I guess it is time to wake up and get out of the relationship before anything worst happens to you.

Very truly yours,

Atty. Jeanie S. Pulido
Website : www.philippineslegalservices.com
Email: jsplaw@philonline.com

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