There are ten (10) grounds for legal separation, provided in Article 55 of the Family Code. Note that these are separate from the grounds for annulment and grounds for declaration of nullity of marriage. A petition for legal separation may be filed based on any of the following grounds:

• (1) Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner;

• (2) Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation;

• (3) Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner, to engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement;

• (4) Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years, even if pardoned;

• (5) Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent;

• (6) Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent;

• (7) Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad;

• (8) Sexual infidelity or perversion;

• (9) Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner; or

• (10) Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year. [See Abandonment as Ground for Legal Separation]

For purposes of Article 55, the term “child” shall include a child by nature or by adoption.

[See: Steps / Procedure in Legal Separation Cases; also, refer to the related discussions on legal separation, annulment, and declaration of nullity.]