Gullas' House Bill (HB) 308 provides that children born to parents who are minors will become legitimate after the parents reach 18 years old and decide to marry each other.
Gullas said under the 1987 Family Code, a child born to parents below 18 could never be legitimate. Only through adoption by his or her own parents could the illegitimate child enjoy the same legal standing as a legitimate offspring, he added.
He however said adoption as "a long, burdensome and expensive process."
"Parents barred by law from marrying each other only because one of them, or both are below 18, but are otherwise capacitated to marry each other, and whose love has endured the pressure of society and who eventually tie the knot upon reaching legal age, deserve absolute approval and support," Gullas said.
"What better way to reward the young parents than to have their child, born illegitimately while they (parents) still could not validly marry due to their tender ages, legitimated by their subsequent wedlock?" he added,
"This way, the stigma of thousands of illegitimate children will be erased. The children will be able to grow normally and establish their legal rights as legitimate offspring," Gullas said.
Thus, an illegitimate child born before his or her parents could lawfully marry, would enjoy the same legal status and rights to succession as full-blood siblings conceived and born after their parents had reached 18 and had contracted marriage.
At present, Article 177 of the Family Code provides that: "Only children conceived and born outside of wedlock of parents who, at the time of the conception of the former, were not disqualified by any impediment to marry each other, may be legitimated."
The same law declares that the minor age of either parent or both parents is one of the legal impediments to a valid marriage.
As proposed by Gullas, the following provision would be added to Article 177: "Provided that, the minority of either or both parents shall not serve as an impediment for their children to be legitimated, after both parents have reached the age of majority and subsequently marry each other." (Sunnex)
