MARRIAGE DISSOLUTION | Senators renew calls to legalize divorce in the Philippines

April 18, 2023 , 06:35 PM

By Clarist Zablan

(April 18, 2023) – Senators on Tuesday renewed calls to legalize absolute divorce in the Philippines, citing a need to protect Filipinos, particularly women, from abusive spouses.

Risa Hontiveros – who chairs the women, children, family relations and gender equality panel in the upper house of Congress – said Filipinos should not be deprived of their right to free themselves from a loveless or even abusive marriage.

“Let us give Filipino families the chance, a way out that is straightforward and no-fault,” Hontiveros said in the Senate committee’s hearing.

“Once you’ve realized you’ve made a mistake, the way out shouldn’t be traumatizing to the average married Filipino – financially, psychologically, and socially. We all deserve a second chance at love and in life.”

Hontiveros filed one of three measures in the Senate seeking to institute divorce in the Philippines, one of the only two countries in the world that does not allow divorce for all of its citizens as a way of terminating marriage.

Another senator and proponent of the divorce measure, Robin Padilla, said legalizing divorce does not intend to destroy the sanctity of marriage but to ensure the protection of rights of married Filipinos, particularly women.

“Bakit di natin subukan ang meron namang diborsyo? Tingnan natin ang epekto. Kasi dapat ang isang demokratikong komunidad, evolving. Di maging stagnant. Kung stagnant tayo wala tayong matututunan kaya dapat patuloy ang pag ikot natin,” he said.

In the Lower House, a counterpart measure that also includes recognizing church annulment was approved “in principle” at the committee level last February, subject to the submission of a consolidated bill drafted by a technical working group.

The country’s laws only recognize divorce for Muslim couples and for marriages between a Filipino and a foreign national that was already dissolved abroad.

Other couples only have the option to file for annulment and nullity of marriage, which advocacy groups have said are prohibitively costly and lengthy for poor Filipino families.

Proposals to legalize the dissolution of marriage in the Philippines have met opposition from religious groups in the Roman Catholic-majority country.

About 80 percent of 110 million Filipimos are Roman Catholic, the largest in Asia.

During his presidential campaign last year, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he was open to legalizing divorce but did not want the process to be “easy” to allow married couples the chance to improve their relationship first.

(MM)

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