Pursuant to the Philippine Rules of Court, judgments of foreign courts regarding:

1.      Divorce by both alien and natural Filipino;

2.      Dissolution of Marriage;

3.      Adoption, except inter-country adoption that passed though the Inter-country Adoption Board (ICAB); and

4.      Other judgements involving the civil status of persons

must be passed upon judicially by a Philippine court to prove its validity before such changes could be made in their Philippine civil registry documents. Such foreign judgments are not self-executory in the Philippines. Thus Filipinos wishing to annotate any changes in their civil registry documents through such foreign judgments, must:

            a: register the said judgment with the City Civil Registry Office of Manila, and then file a civil action at the Regional Trial Courts in the Philippines for recognition of the foreign judgment

            b: register the decision/s of the Regional Trial Court/s at the Local Civil Registry office of the city or municipality where the court is functioning.

The Local Civil Registrar of the city or municipality will annotate the civil registry documents under his jurisdiction only upon submission of the registered Regional Trial Court decision.