Filipino families' quarrel over inheritance

The common dispute among Filipino families is the partition of inheritance among siblings. A quarrel over a piece of property surface when one sibling outstretch his occupied boundary or else deem it as his already acquired portion disregarding the rest of the siblings. When couple have acquired a small property under the name of the dead spouse and the living spouse wanted to dispatch the property or decided to divide it among her children, a dispute would somehow be expected.

I have witnessed a number of such situation, mainly the causes of disagreement is the squabble over the property division. Take this one case I know very well. Since the rest of the siblings have already a house of their own, the less fortunate one then decided to stay on the parent's compound and built his own house and do business. While enjoying his business, he stretched further disregarding his mother's disapproval. He presumed that his other affluent siblings would not be interested with the property, so when the time comes he could finally take it as his own.

The fate came to mother's weakening health, medical expenses has reached to staggering high prices and the support coming from other fortunate children can no longer suffice. The only solution of the sick parent is to sell half of her property and that refer to the portion occupied by the sibling. As expected, there was this long argument on the disgruntled occupant. He even challenge his other siblings about the legality of his right to property and demanded a payback from what he had spent on the structured and placed the value of his house to the present price of the house he is going to buy when he transfer. Considering the almost dilapidated structured of his house while the amount he demanded is equal to the value of an expensive newly-built house around the city, it sounds absurd. The other siblings then recognized greediness which then decided to summon a lawyer and a municipal assessor to interfere so the dumb sibling would understand his boundary and his claimed right.

From the words of the lawyer the law explains that in case where a couple acquired a property under the name of the dead spouse and they have children, the living spouse maintain her right to the property, she can have the right to dispose the half of the property and the other half would be divided equally among her and the children so the right of the children to the property of the parents becomes slimmer while there still one parent that lives.

After the lawyer's disclosure of the sibling's legal right to the property, the disgruntled child admitted that it was against his will not actually what he knows about legality. The lawyer advised him to talk with the mother and make amends from his hostility and seek the console of other siblings.

After the conference with the lawyer, came the municipal assessor and made his rounds of assessment. The assessor placed the value of the house way below the present value. Though the sibling pointed out those newly- built structured attached to the wall which is inside the house, the assessor maintains that it can't be meted out to the value of the whole structure as per the price of the house.

The pride was still there, the haughty child remained obstinate, not heeding the advice. He even remained aloof to the rest of the siblings . Since he can't anymore insist his will, he accepted the fact that he has to go. While awaiting for the buyer, he just instructed his wife to talk with his mother about his displacement and beg for the piece of lot where he can build the dwelling for his family. He wants to clarify if his mother would still allow him to stay in the compound since there was this heated argument at one time between them, when the mother thrown a bitter word on him, shooing him away from her vicinity. Yet, the mother has this soft heart for the son that he was allowed to stay in the compound but with a certain limit in space.

The other siblings hope that disgruntled brother would approach them with low-profile and swallow his pride, so that they could design an appropriate step to help him. But so far it remains something to be hoped for since the proud sibling continue to serve as a pain in their neck.

Proverbs 16:18
18 Pride goes before destruction. And a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.