January 21, 2009
Asking for child support
 Dear HerWord,
This is to inquire about the paternal obligations of my daughter's father over our daughter who was born out of wedlock.
I am a Filipina living here in the Philippines with my daughter whose father is an American (a retired US Army and now working as a Civilian Employee at the US Forces in Korea). He sends financial support, yes, but not on a definite schedule, and when I remind him of it, I hear only a lot of negative things from him like I only contact him for money; when in fact, I regularly update him about our child but he showed no interest in her at all. Everytime I call him about our daughter, he makes me feel that I am pushing our daughter to him. He's been here in the country several times after our daughter was born, but he never bothered to exert an effort to see her, call or text me about our daughter.
He was in the country when my daughter was hospitalized, yet he never cared to see her, didn't even bother to call and ask about her condition. He has access to cheaper phone calls and yet, he only called once.
When I asked him for money for our daughter's baptism, he said, "Why should I send money when I am not Catholic?" There was one time when he agreed to see my daughter when he was here, but my baby had fever and LBM (seven months old) that time so I asked if he could be the one to come to Naga, but he said, "Why would I be the one to travel when I'm the one paying?" He also accused me of highway robbery when I told him that renting a van going to Manila would cost around P10,000+. And so we took a bus to see him, and when my baby and I were halfway to the meeting place (we decided to meet in Laguna), he sent us back home.
He keeps telling me that the monthly financial support he sends is enough and that he would not give more than what my daughter deserves.
How do I file a complaint so we'll have a court order to rule over his paternal obligations? Sometimes, I think of just not running after his paternal obligation over our daughter since his attitude really pisses me off; but then, I am only after our daughter's welfare, and no matter what, it's a fact that he's her father.
Can the court decide over the amount, schedule, and until when he is obliged to give financial support to our child? Please help me, I am doing this for my daughter. I am a professional but life is hard, especially since, here in the Philippines, jobs are not easy to find especially with my age—I am already 33 years old and age requirement for a job is between 24 to 27 years old. I used to work at a government agency here before I left for Seoul to spend the Holidays with him.
Thank you very much and more power.
Respectfully yours,
Mommy
Hi, Mommy.
Congratulations on your baby! As to whether you can have the happy ending that I'm sure you seek, only time can tell. To answer your question, you may file a case for support against the father of your child, but doing so is not practical and will not guarantee the ending that you want. There is a procedure that needs to be followed when you initiate a case and for purposes of your query, you need to know some of these steps, so bear with me.
Upon the filing of a complaint (and payment of legal fees), the court must serve summons to the person being sued (defendant). Summons is basically a notice to the defendant that he is being sued and that he must answer the complaint against him. Without the service of summons, the defendant is not given the opportunity to answer the complaint against him. In a case where the defendant does not reside and is not found in the Philippines, the court will require that the summons be served either by personal service, publication or another means that it deems sufficient. However, these methods are only possible if the nature of the case filed affects the personal status of the plaintiff (i.e. an action for legitimacy) or its subject is property found in the Philippines. Here lies the problem: the case which you want to file (an action for support) does not fall under these categories, therefore, there is no way that the court can serve the summons on the father of your child. Without the summons your case will not progress. In the end, you would have just wasted the money you paid for the filing of the case because the court cannot and will not decide your case without the service of summons on the father of your child.
Though you have every right to ask for child support, our laws prescribe a procedure for going about it and in your case, a technical and legal barrier stands in the way. I would remind you however that under Philippine law, the court will grant the amount of child support in proportion to the resources or means of the father and the necessities of the child. The court can decrease or increase the amount being asked for depending on these circumstances. So although you only want the best for your child, consider her paramount "needs" against the financial capacity of her father. Reasonableness and fairness are important factors in child support. My advise is to keep the communication line between you and the child's father open and cordial, because as long as he does not reside here in the Philippines, this may be the only surefire way to ask for child support.
Good luck and Happy New Year!
Atty. Krisma
If you have questions for Atty. Krisma, email feedback@herword.com.
Atty. Krisma Guyala graduated from the Ateneo Law School in 2001. She took her pre-law in the University of the Philippines with a degree in English Studies major in Creative Writing. She presently works as an in-house counsel for the PJ Lhuillier Group of Companies.
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