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To begot a child is a sign of manliness and to become a father of a child is compliance to the divine commandment. But how can the father determine that the child is his?

Absent of any physical or clinical proofs, there is no way that the father can determine his paternity to the child, except from the very solemn testimony and representation of the wife that the child is his. The wife’s declaration is the first basis for the father on the issue of paternity. Paternity is the relation of the father to the child in contrast of filiation; the relation of the child to the father.

In the advent of DNA technology, a father can 99% be certain that the child is his. The DNA combination of the father which can also be found in the child serves as the best clinical evidence to establish paternity or filiation. Though it cost a little bit  but the technology provides a frame of certainty to anyone who doubts the blood relation. Unlike before, that the sole basis of the father is the honest declaration of the wife that the child is his.

This was the story of a friend Arnel, not his real name, who has four grown kids, living with his wife in a nearby place to our city. Arnel is working as a seaman, and barely stays longer than two months with his family every year due to the nature of his job. Most of the time, Arnel is on the ship, and establish communication with his wife and kids through phone only.

One time time, Arnel had received a very delicate information from his parents regarding the rumored affair of his wife with another man, when he is out to the sea. Of course, at first, he dismissed the information as plain hearsay and even quarreled with his parents, resulting to the severance of their relation. However, as years go by, several talks from concerned friends and relatives were coming out, every time Arnel would have his yearly vacation.

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Confused of what he is going to do, Arnel sought the advice of a lawyer, as he was already suspecting that his wife is playing fire with other man, prompting him to doubt paternity to his children if in case. Arnel’s lawyer adviced him to secretly get a DNA test to verify his concern. Without the knowledge of his wife, Arnel brought his four children to the National Bureau of Investigation office for DNA test. To his surprise, the result showed that his youngest child had a different DNA combination, unlike with his three other children, signifying that the child is not his.

Furious of what he had discovered, immediately, Arnel filed a legal separation case against his wife on the ground of adultery, using the DNA result as conclusive evidence against her. The case is still on progress at the moment; however, this story serves a lesson, that between husband and wife, there should be no room for lies and deception. For in the end, an act committed in darkness will be shown in public.