Gap between pro-divorce, anti-divorce Filipinos ‘narrowed,’ says pollster

August 16, 2024 , 10:11 PM

By Rodolfo Dacleson II

(August 16, 2024) – An independent survey firm on Friday said the gap between Filipinos in favor of and against divorce slightly narrowed ahead of the upcoming 2025 midterm elections.

OCTA Research found that the percentage of Filipinos against divorce is 57%, while those in favor tallied 41%.

“This used to be, five to six years ago, a yawning gap, a universe between those who are against divorce and those who are supporting divorce. Now, the gap has narrowed a bit, but there’s a lot of work to be done,” said OCTA Research president Ranjit Rye on One News’ Storycon.

The survey was held from June 26 to July 1 among 1,200 respondents with a 3% margin of error.

“When you look at the various ways of supporting divorce, couples who cannot anymore reconcile or marriage where violence is present, very clear ‘yung 39% kung bakit sila sumusuporta sa initiative legalizing divorce,” added Rye.

Last March, the House of Representatives made a landmark approval of House Bill No. 9349 or the Absolute Divorce Bill. It was transmitted to the Senate for further review.

Rye also noted that the decline in the number of undecided, as reflected in their survey, also showed the narrowing gap between opposing factions.

He posited that divorce will be a critical issue for voters in the 2025 midterm elections. He said their survey revealed that 55% will not vote for candidates promoting divorce, while 39%, which Rye described as “quite significant,” will vote for them. Some 5% were undecided.

“If you’re pushing for the advocacy towards divorce, I think there’s still a lot of room for improvement. A lot of awareness-raising initiatives can be done,” said Rye.

He added that the 39% would be a “very strong hard vote” in next year’s midterm elections.

The Philippines is the only country aside from the Vatican that doesn’t have divorce.

(PM)

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