SANTOS v. ARANZANSO Parties: PAULINA SANTOS and AURORA SANTOS, petitioners, GREGORIA ARANZANSO and DEMETRIA VENTURA, respondents.

FACTS: ! A petition for adoption of Paulina, 17 years old and Aurora Santos, 8 years old, was filed by Simplicio Santos and Juliana Reyes in the C ! of "anila. "! !t was alle#ed that both parents of the minors ha$e lon# been unheard from and could not be found in spite of dili#ent efforts to locate them% that since the war said minors ha$e been abandoned% and that for years since their infancy, said children ha$e been continuously been in petitioners& care and custody. #! 'he consent to the adoption has been #i$en by the #uardian ad litem appointed by the Court. $! After due publication and hearin#, the adoption court #ranted the petition for the adoption. %! Subse(uently ) ei#ht years later ) Juliana Reyes died intestate. &! Simplicio Santos filed a petition for the settlement of the intestate estate of the former, statin# amon# other thin#s that the sur$i$in# heirs of the deceased are* he, Paulina Santos and Aurora Santos. '! +e also as,ed that he be appointed administrator of the estate. (! -re#oria Aran.anso, alle#in# to be the first cousin of the deceased, filed an opposition to the petition for appointment of administrator, assertin# amon# others that the adoption of Paulina and Aurora Santos is $oid ab initio for want of the written consent of their parents, who were then li$in# and had not abandoned them. )! /emetria 0entura, alle#in# li,ewise to be the first cousin of the deceased and mother of Paulina opposed also the petition of Simplicio and adopted the pleadin#s filed by Aran.anso. *! 'he Court of Appeals sustained respondent1oppositors ri#ht to ma,e a collateral attac, a#ainst the adoption decree on the #round of failure to obtain the consent of the natural parents was a 2urisdictional defect renderin# the adoption $oid ab initio. ISSUE: 3hether a decree of adoption could be assailed collaterally in a settlement proceedin#. RULING* 45. irstly, consent of the parents is not an absolute re(uisite if child was abandoned, consent by the #uardian ad litem suffices. Second, in adoption proceedin#s, abandonment imports 6any conduct on the part of the parent which e$inces a settled purpose to for#o all parental duties and relin(uish all parental claims to the child.7 !t means ne#lect or refusal to perform the natural and le#al obli#ations of care and support which parents owe to their children.7 'hird, the settled rule is that e$en when the 2urisdiction of an inferior tribunal depends upon the e8istence of a fact to be established before it, the determination of that fact by the tribunal cannot be (uestioned in a collateral attac, upon its order. +ence, the CA erred in re$iewin# under a collateral attac,, the determination of the adoption court that the parents of the adopted children had abandoned them.

3herefore, the 2ud#ment of the Court of Appeals is hereby re$ersed and the order of the probate court a quo sustainin# the adoption, dated April 9, 1:;:, is affirmed. Respondents -re#oria Aran.anso and /emetria 0entura as well as Consuelo and Pacita Pasion are declared without ri#ht to inter$ene as heirs in the settlement of the intestate estate of Juliana Reyes. 'he preliminary in2unction heretofore issued is dissol$ed, e8cept insofar as it en2oins the inter$ention or allowance of withdrawals of properly from the estate by -re#oria Aran.anso, /emetria 0entura, Consuelo and Pacita Pasion, in the concept of heirs, as to which it is hereby made permanent. 4o costs. So ordered.