WHAT therefore God has put together, let no man put apart, so Jesus told the Pharisees.
Our Family Code defines marriage along that scriptural adage. It is a special contract of “permanent union” between a man and a woman.
Consequently, aside from death, the circumstances that can sever the marital tie are extremely limited in this country.
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The legal ground for annulment petitions had always been psychological incapacity on the part of the respondent spouse.
The process has proven to be expensive and lengthy. And results are not assured. Thousands of couples who have been separated for decades continue to be married on paper.
Filipinos divorced from foreigners are unable to remarry unless the foreign judgment of divorce is locally recognized.
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A Senate committee recently came out with a substitute consolidated bill (S. No. 2443), which is a proposed law simply entitled “Dissolution of Marriage Act.”
The individual bills filed by Senators Risa Hontiveros, Raffy Tulfo, Robinhood Padilla, Imee Marcos, and Pia Cayetano were reconciled and collapsed into a single bill that is expected to be discussed by the entire Senate.
Absolute divorce as defined in this bill is a court-ordered legal termination of a marriage. It requires the filing of a petition or complaint for divorce by one or both of the spouses. When decreed, it will have the effect of returning both parties to single status with the right to contract a subsequent marriage.
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Under this Senate bill, any of the spouses may file a petition for divorce citing as a ground any of these circumstances: five years of separation, the crime of rape by the respondent spouse committed against the petitioner spouse, sexual infidelity, physical violence or grossly abusive conduct, irreconcilable marital differences or irreparable breakdown of the marriage, a divorce obtained from abroad, and previously obtained church or customs-based annulment.
Lesbianism and homosexuality per se are not grounds for divorce under this bill unless either or both spouses commit marital infidelity.
Notably, a validly obtained divorce decree under this bill is final and executory insofar as the capacity to remarry is concerned.
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The Senate committee action follows the approval last March by the House of Representatives committee on population and family relations of its own substitute bill on divorce which offers an inexpensive, reasonable, and expeditious alternative for legally ending a marriage, according to Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman.
Lagman added that “enduring years of physical violence, suffering emotional abuse, tolerating infidelity, allowing children to live in a hostile home and witness daily discord and constant conflict – these are far worse than divorce.”
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Is this divorce measure in accord with the Constitution which provides that the State must protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution?
Delegates to the 1987 constitutional commission are agreed that the Constitution does not bar congress from enacting a divorce law.
Indeed, the Senate version of the proposed law explains that while the State has the duty to protect the family, it is also dutybound to safeguard the dignity of every human person, guarantee full respect for human rights, uphold the fundamental equality before the law of men and women and ensure the best interest of children as the paramount consideration./PN
