"x x x.
No misrepresentation existed vitiating the
seller’s consent and invalidating the contract
Consent is an essential requisite of contracts[12] as it pertains to the meeting of the offer and the acceptance upon the thing and the cause which constitute the contract.[13] To create a valid contract, the meeting of the minds must be free, voluntary, willful and with a reasonable understanding of the various obligations the parties assumed for themselves.[14] Where consent, however, is given through mistake, violence, intimidation, undue influence, or fraud, the contract is deemed voidable.[15] However, not every mistake renders a contract voidable. The Civil Code clarifies the nature of mistake that vitiates consent:
Article 1331. In order that mistake may invalidate consent, it should refer to the substance of the thing which is the object of the contract, or to those conditions which have principally moved one or both parties to enter into the contract.
Mistake as to the identity or qualifications of one of the parties will vitiate consent only when such identity or qualifications have been the principal cause of the contract.
A simple mistake of account shall give rise to its correction. [Emphasis ours.]
For mistake as to the qualification of one of the parties to vitiate consent, two requisites must concur:
1. the mistake must be either with regard to the identity or with regard to the qualification of one of the contracting parties; and
2. the identity or qualification must have been the principal consideration for the celebration of the contract.[16]
x x x."