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FIRST DIVISION
[ G.R. No. 223628, March 04, 2020 ]
EDNA S. KONDO, REPRESENTED BY ATTORNEY-IN-FACT,
LUZVIMINDA S. PINEDA, PETITIONER, V. CIVIL REGISTRAR
GENERAL, RESPONDENT.
DECISION
LAZARO-JAVIER, J.:
The Case
This Petition for Review on Certiorari[1] seeks to reverse the Decision[2] of the Court of
Appeals dated March 16, 2016 in CA-G.R. CV No. 103150 which affirmed the trial
court's denial of petitioner's Motion for New Trial.
Antecedents
On March 15, 1991, petitioner Edna S. Kondo and Katsuhiro Kondo, a Filipina and
Japanese national, respectively, were married before the Head of Hirano Ward in Japan.
[3] They registered their Marriage Certificate of even date with the National Statistics
Office[4] in the Philippines. But on July 3, 2000, after around nine (9) years of
marriage, they obtained a divorce by agreement in Japan for which they were issued a
Report of Divorce.[5]
On November 7, 2012, Edna, through her sister and Attorney-in-Fact Luzviminda S.
Pineda, filed a petition for judicial recognition of the divorce decree,[6] citing Article 26
(2) of the Family Code, viz:
xxxx
Where a marriage between a Filipino citizen and a foreigner is validly
celebrated and a divorce is thereafter validly obtained abroad by the alien
spouse capacitating him or her to remarry, the Filipino spouse shall have
capacity to remarry under Philippine law.
Edna essentially alleged that the divorce capacitated Katsuhiro to remarry under
Japanese laws. She sought formal recognition of the divorce decree and asked the trial
court to direct the Civil Registrar to annotate the same in her Marriage Certificate.
Docketed as Civil Case No. 12-128981, the case was raffled to the Regional Trial Court
(RTC)-Branch 4, Manila.
In compliance with the trial court's order dated May 28, 2013, Edna duly established
the trial court's jurisdiction over her petition[7] which was unopposed, except by the
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