Who should have custody of the bodies of diseased spouses, particularly in love triangle cases?

Bacolod Rep. Evelio Leonardia yesterday said he filed House Bill 4709 on July 3 to amend Article 305 of the Civil Code of the Philippines to finally settle the matter in very clear terms.

“It is ironic that while we all agree that the legal wife or husband should get the body, the existing jurisprudence is not very clear,” said Leonardia, who is a lawyer.

The law only assigns the legal spouse the right to make the funeral arrangements, and this is the reason why we continue to hear of litigations over the bodies of dead husbands and wives, he said.

To avoid the unharmonious tug-of-war claim over a corpse, Leonardia said there is a need to clarify and emphasize in the law the right to the custody and possession of the body in regard to the final rites, or funeral of the deceased by amending Article 305 of the Civil Code of the Philippines.

Leonardia has also filed House Bill 4722 on July 8 that seeks to also allow the recognized illegitimate dependent children of incumbent elective and appointive barangay officials to avail of free tuition and matriculation fees at state colleges and universities.

The bill also states that all dependent children of barangay officials should enjoy such privilege for a successive maximum period of five years, regardless of whether the incumbent barangay officials remains in office or not.*CPG

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