President Corazon Aquino signed Executive Order No. 209 on July 6, 1987, enacting the Family Code of the Philippines. It took effect on August 3, 1988, replacing Books I and II of the Civil Code governing persons, family, and property relations.

President Aquino signed EO 227 on July 17, 1987 (published August 4, 1988), inserting a second paragraph into Article 26. Where an alien spouse obtains a valid foreign divorce, the Filipino spouse is now capacitated to remarry under Philippine law.

The Supreme Court, through Justice Vitug, issued the first authoritative interpretation of Art. 36 "psychological incapacity." The Court held it must be characterized by: (a) gravity — must prevent the party from assuming essential marital obligations; (b) juridical antecedence — must exist at or before the celebration of the marriage; and (c) incurability.

Justice Romero promulgated the landmark Molina guidelines in Republic v. Court of Appeals and Molina, establishing 8 strict requirements for Art. 36 petitions. The guidelines required expert psychological reports and made successful nullity petitions nearly impossible — a posture that persisted for over two decades.

Justice Nachura relaxed the overly strict Molina guidelines, adopting a more flexible totality-of-evidence approach to Art. 36 petitions. The Court acknowledged that Molina had become a "procrustean standard" rendering Art. 36 almost useless in practice.

In a landmark en banc decision written by Justice Leonen, the Supreme Court abandoned the Molina guidelines and declared that Art. 36 "psychological incapacity" is a legal concept, not a medical or psychiatric one. Expert testimony was held helpful but not indispensable. The standard of proof is preponderance, not near-certainty.

Republic Act 11642 (signed December 22, 2021; took effect January 7, 2022) transferred domestic adoption from the judiciary to the newly created National Authority for Child Care (NACC), eliminating lengthy court trials and making adoption fully administrative.