It can be said that the influence
of over three centuries of Catholic Spanish colonial rule over the Philippines
gave most of its people a specific set of morals and ethics rooted in that
faith, one of them being the sanctity of marriage. That meant traditional
Filipino culture backed by law frowns on the concept of divorce, allowing only
legal separation for troubled couples without remarriage, or annulment in “proving”
that no lawful marriage actually took place. Now the Philippines and the
Vatican stand as the last two nation-states of the world that illegalizes
divorce. Divorce bills introduced in legislation typically get shredded eventually,
except possibly for this latest one.
CNN Philippines reports that an unnumbered substitute House Bill
for the legalization of absolute divorce in the country has been approved at
the House of Representatives this past Tuesday, August 17. The approval comes
from the House Committee on Population and Family Relations, following the
definition wherein grounds for legal separation, marriage annulment and
nullification are added as grounds for absolute divorce along with a few new
ones. The bill was written up by Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay, who pointed out
the futility of the Philippines in ignoring nearly all countries allowing
absolute divorce.
In his sponsorship speech Lagman
notes, "It is hard to believe that all the other countries collectively
erred in instituting absolute divorce in varying degrees of liberality and
limitations," referring to the determined local conservative opposition to
divorce. A manifestation speech by Gabriela Party-List Rep. Arlene Brosas again
emphasized how having absolute divorce will give a legal and affordable option
for wives to save themselves from a toxically abusive marriage. The absolute divorce
bill has been struggling to move forward in the legislature for years now, with
its last notable progress being back in 2018.
The new grounds for divorce highlighted
in the substitute bill that was approved on Tueday are as follows: legal and
factual separation between spouses for at least 5 years at the time of filing
for divorce; gender reassignment surgery or transition from one sex to another
for one spouse; valid foreign-country divorce as secured by either the alien of
Filipino spouse; and marriage nullification as granted by recognized religious
tribunals. The original causes for legal separation and annulment as defined in
the Family Code of the Philippines have already been added as acceptable causes
for absolute divorce in the bill.
Image courtesy of Philippine Star
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