Your remedy depends on what was promised: collect money with interest, compel delivery, have work done or undone at the debtor’s cost, or cancel a reciprocal contract, plus damages. Steps, defenses, deadlines and where to file.
How Philippine courts compute damages in civil cases: proving actual damages, lost earnings and the loss-of-earning-capacity formula, temperate, moral, nominal and exemplary damages, legal interest, and what reduces an award, with worked examples.
A stage-by-stage roadmap for creditors and debtors in an unpaid-debt dispute: fixing the balance, written demand, settlement, barangay conciliation, small claims or a collection case, and execution.
Understand when a contractual penalty replaces damages and interest, when additional recovery is possible, and when courts may reduce it.
Understand why lifting statutory interest ceilings did not remove judicial review of unconscionable rates and oppressive loan charges.
Understand contractual interest, interest as damages, the 6% legal rate framework, and the dates needed for an accurate computation.
When several debts exist, learn who chooses which debt is paid and how Articles 1252–1254 allocate an undesignated payment.
What a creditor must prove to collect an unpaid debt in the Philippines: evidence checklist, demand, interest and penalty computation, and the defenses that can defeat or reduce the claim.
Understand when legal delay begins under Article 1169, when demand is unnecessary, and what consequences and evidence matter.