Hi,

I was only 17 when my dad left us for another woman and that was 8 years ago. I have 5 siblings all younger than me. The youngest was only a baby when he left. I still have 3 minor siblings. We keep on asking my dad for child support and he gives at least 500 to 1000 a month (sometimes its every 4 to 6 months) which is not enough since the 3 kids are studying and two of them are going to college. My mom is not working as she is a full time mom to my siblings since they are still young. I am the one giving extra money to my mother. My dad is claiming he can't do much about the money he is sending since he is "sick/ill". But he can't give me any diagnosis of his sickness. He won't work but we know that he has a small store together with his concubine. My dad's family are greedy when it comes to money. They are keeping us away from getting any money from the house we were living in before (since we transferred from manila to cavite and had our house in manila rented to a different person and the house is owned by my paternal grandfather). That rent money should be able to help us get by but my dad won't do anything about it. He is just content about his life now with his mistress. We know where they live and we have pictures of them being and living together. He is just plain happy with what he has while my mom is struggling with the finances. He even cursed my other sister when we tried to talk to him regarding the situation. Can we file for any child support coming from him? Even if he is not working but he has other resources such as his store and the house we lived before? Can we also file for Anti violence against women & children since he cursed my sister and we have a full recording of it?

I am desperate to help my mom about our family and all I can think of is going through legal matters to sort this out.

Also can you advise me of any Law firm that offers cheap or possibly pro bono on this kind of case? We don't have enough money to proceed but I really want to.

Sorry for the long message.

First its not a good idea to piggyback your question on another thread. This can lead to confusion. So I've moved your question to its own thread.

Why didn't your mother file for child support when he left? Has she ever even filed for divorce? YOU cannot do this, she has to. But Philippine law does provide for child support. You may have issues with his lack of documentable income, but there still should be a minimal support.

A search under Philippine Family Law lists several attorneys. You will need to shop around but you may find that your father can be required to pay the legal fees. But again, your mother needs to initiate any legal action. You can't.

Hi sorry about that I didn't realize I was out of topic. I was just too angry yesterday. Thanks for your answer by the way.

She didn't file for any support at the time he left us because we didn't know where he was 8 years ago. We got his address through an old neighbor. He is Calamba now. Also we were receiving help from my dad's family before but now it changed when we transferred to Cavite.

It was like they just thought to cut off family ties from us after we left my granddad's house and to think that it was my mom who took care of their father for years.

I worked just as I turned 18 to help my mom and same goes to my 2nd sister. We can get by with our earnings but now that two of my younger siblings are going to college it's really hard to keep things together.

My mother is willing to sue my dad but she doesn't want to file for any annulment since she is afraid that once she does that she will not get anything from my dad. She doesn't want to remove the rights of my younger siblings from getting anything from him. Also she respects my granddad but now that my dad's family is thinking of us as other people and not blood related to them, she wants to fight back.

First, not knowing where he was does not preclude her from filing. She could have filed and gotten awarded even if she couldn't collect. But that's water under the bridge. She can't get the marriage annulled if there are children. But she can file for divorce and child support.

Yes, she needs to do what she is required to do, to make him pay. He has to do nothing at this point. So file for divorce and child support and get things going. Plus , sorry, but full time moms when their husbands leave them, have to go get a job and work, Beyond that, they check in with social services and get any aid they can.