Court of Appeals rejects challenge to Wenn Deramas' heirs

September 17, 2025 | 7:00am

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals (CA) has rejected a petition by relatives of the late movie director Edwin “Wenn” Deramas questioning the inheritance rights of his two children.

In a Sept. 8 decision, the CA’s 15th Division upheld a Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) ruling affirming that DNA testing was unnecessary despite allegations over the director’s sexuality and family life.

The case involved two parcels of land in Quezon City and several bank deposits.

After Deramas’ death in 2016, his estate went to his adopted children. But his sister and the children of his deceased siblings claimed to be the rightful heirs, executing an extrajudicial settlement adjudicating the estate to themselves.

The birth certificates of the children list Deramas as their father and Manalo as their mother. They argued that the respondents, whom Deramas raised in his Matandang Balara home, were never formally adopted.

They also pointed out that Deramas, a successful film director, was openly gay and that his companion, Ariane Manalo is openly lesbian. They argued it was “impossible” for them to have naturally conceived the children.

The petitioners further cited records from the Philippine Statistics Authority confirming that Deramas’ name does not appear in the national marriage index.

What prompted the dispute?

The feud escalated when the petitioners learned that Deramas’ children had transferred the Balara and Bahay Toro houses into their names through a separate extrajudicial settlement.

Arguing this was determinative, the petitioners sought DNA testing at court to establish filiation.

The Quezon City RTC denied the motion, holding that the birth certificates were valid proof. Citing Article 172 of the Family Code, the court said alternative means of proving filiation only apply in the absence of a record of birth.

The CA ruling

The appellate court dismissed the appeal of the late director's sister, stressing that the argument equating Deramas’ and Manalo’s sexual orientation with an inability to have children was a "logical fallacy."

It added that the birth certificates carried the presumption of truth as public documents and could only be overturned by a high degree of proof — which the petitioners failed to provide.

"Certainly, the denial of a motion for DNA testing is warranted when the request is premised solely on such tenuous or insubstantial grounds," the CA said.

"This holds true all the more in this case where petitioners’ allegations are met with [children’s] certificates of live birth, which as public documents, carry considerable evidentiary weight, it added.