Is divorce coming to the Philippines?
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Perhaps this newspaper item is of some interest ..
Is divorce coming to the Philippines?
By David Hutt October 11, 2024
https://www.dw.com/en/is-divorce-coming-to-the-philippines/a-70469717
The Absolute Divorce Law has been passed by the Philippines' lower legislative assembly, but the Senate could still let it lapse.
Only two countries in the world still ban divorce: the Vatican and the Philippines. But the tides seem to be shifting in the Southeast Asian nation.
Divorce is illegal for most residents of the Philippines, despite a special law that gave the nation's Muslim minority the right to legally end their marriage. The Christian majority, however, remains deeply affected by the Catholic Church and the rules espoused by the Vatican — the only other country in the world to still ban divorce.
This May, however, the Philippine House of Representatives narrowly passed the Absolute Divorce Act, a proposed law that would dramatically change the country's legal stance on marriage dissolution. The bill expands on existing options such as annulment, legal separation and psychological incapacity.
If enacted, the law would allow couples to file for divorce if they have been separated for at least five years and reconciliation is deemed impossible, or if they have been legally separated for more than two years. It would also incorporate justifications already recognized in annulment and legal separation cases, such as abandonment and infidelity.
Catholic bishops warn against 'divorce bandwagon'
At the same time, the bill would not introduce no-fault divorce and, except in cases where a spouse or child is in danger, it would require a 60-day cooling-off period to give couples a last chance to reconcile.
"Lawmakers must recognize that this is a civil policy that does not interfere with personal beliefs or family dynamics," activist AJ Alfafara of the Divorce Pilipinas Coalition told DW.
"Instead, it provides a vital option for many Filipinos who have been living separately for years but lack legal recognition of their status," she added.
The next step, however, lies with the Senate, the upper house of parliament, which has been sitting on the bill since June. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines has urged caution, warning about the dangers of "jumping onto the divorce bandwagon" in July.
Challenges for Filipinos seeking divorce
At present, Filipinos seeking to end their marriages have limited options. Legal separation allows spouses to live apart but does not dissolve the marriage, while annulment is often prohibitively expensive and requires proof that the marriage was invalid from the start.
These options remain out of reach for many Filipinos, leaving them trapped in dysfunctional or often dangerous relationships.
There is also social pressure in favor of marriage among the country's Christian majority, which comprises almost 88% of the population.
Support for divorce, however, appears to be growing. A March survey by the Social Weather Stations found that 50% of Filipino adults are in favour of legalizing divorce, while 31% oppose it.
Another survey, conducted with church-based media outlets, revealed that only 34% of respondents supported divorce due to "irreconcilable differences," but more than half approved of divorce in cases of domestic abuse.
Divorce abroad now valid in Philippines
Advocates of the bill have largely focused on how it could offer women a legal escape from abusive relationships.
Some campaigners argue that momentum for legalizing divorce gained traction last month when the Philippine Supreme Court ruled that the country must recognize foreign divorce decrees. The ruling applied to cases where a Filipino is married to a foreigner and the divorce is obtained abroad.
"The court held that the type of divorce, whether administrative or judicial, did not matter. As long as the divorce is valid under the foreign spouse's national law, it will be recognized in the Philippines for the Filipino spouse," the judges said in their ruling.
Will the Senate act?
Opinions are divided on whether the Supreme Court's ruling will impact the Senate's decision on the divorce bill. Jeofrey Abalos, a demographer at the Australian National University, believes the ruling will have "little effect" as only about 1% of registered marriages in the Philippines involve a foreign national.
"The situation of this small segment of Filipinos who obtained divorce abroad is very much different from the circumstances of many Filipinos seeking to legally terminate their marriage, so this ruling may not fully resonate," Abalos told DW.
On the other hand, Alfafara argues that the ruling paves the way for a broader understanding of marital dissolution.
"The absence of divorce rights infringes on basic human rights, as outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," she said.
The bill now hinges on the Senate's decision. A similar measure was rejected in 2018, and the current Senate composition includes many conservative Catholic or Christian senators who have publicly opposed the idea of divorce.
Senators want to change bill's wording
Some lawmakers have proposed workarounds to tone down the language of the bill to get it over the line.
Influential Senator Jinggoy Estrada has suggested improving the annulment process instead of legalizing divorce. "We should look at how to make marriage annulments more accessible and their processes less taxing," Estrada said in a statement, according to broadcaster Al Jazeera.
The meaning of marriage
Last month, Senate President Francis Escudero offered a different perspective, proposing that lawmakers "remove the word 'divorce'" from the bill. "We already have divorce in our country, it's just not called divorce. It's called nullity of marriage," Escudero told reporters in late September.
Running out of time
The fate of the divorce bill remains uncertain, especially with midterm elections approaching in May, when all 317 seats in the House of Representatives and half of the 24 seats in the Senate will be contested.
If the Senate does not pass the bill before then, it will expire, forcing the newly-elected House of Representatives to start the legislative process over again.
"Given that midterm elections are coming up, there is little time for the bill to go through the legislative process," Athena Charanne Presto, a sociologist and senior lecturer at the University of the Philippines Diliman, told DW.
Despite this, Alfafara remains optimistic. She believes the current bill has come further than any previous attempts to legalize divorce in the Philippines, and while obstacles remain, the growing public support could make a difference in the years to come.
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Just a thought but I bet marriage guidance/councelling costs more than most can afford in the Philippines unless a Westerner is one half of the couple.
If the Philippine government would care about it's people they would approve of divorce and keep religion out of the equation. There basically is no difference between an annulment and a divorce and an annulment is just a money grab for a lot of agencies, lawyers etc... The Philippines is the only country in the world not accepting divorce and seems the government is sticking their head in the sand that there are many reasons why there needs to be a divorce including physical abuse from one spouse to the other or the children.
Just my 2 cents worth.
`
Yes indeed CA, you would be right.
You write, "I bet marriage guidance/counselling costs more than most can afford in the Philippines" and so those currently in need of marriage guidance will only have their normal sources of guidance, their local male priest. He would certainly not advise divorce, simply forgiveness and prayer.
And quite obviously, sometimes that's just not enough.
Also yes Windsurfer, one thinks most of us would heartly agree. Surely, tradition is important, and especially the rich tapestry of Philippine culture. However now, every world culture accepts that divorce is a basic human right.
And that society is a healthier place when people may re-do mistakes.
Happy trails👍
One thing is lacking, a Filipino actual getting married.
One thing is lacking, a Filipino actual getting married. -@Enzyte Bob
Haha, yes true Bob .. it seems Philippine folk don't actually officially marry all that much.
But, the age range 25 to 29 is the most popular age for marriage in the Philippines, and, "In 2020, 40.2 percent of females and 38.9 percent of males between the age of 25 to 29 years old were married in the Philippines. In the same year, the number of marriages registered in the country reached around 240,000 couples"
Who needs marriage? Living in sin is more fun and eventually cheaper when the fit hits the shan, I have very good friends that have been together for 50 and 55 years and never married. One asks why marriage is so important,,,,, the churches, the attorney's in the aftermath? Social B/S pressure? Happily living in sin according to many suits us.
OMO.
Cheers, Steve.
Who needs marriage? Living in sin is more fun and eventually cheaper when the fit hits the shan, I have very good friends that have been together for 50 and 55 years and never married. One asks why marriage is so important,,,,, the churches, the attorney's in the aftermath? Social B/S pressure? Happily living in sin according to many suits us.OMO.Cheers, Steve. -@bigpearl
Balikbayan for the nonFilipino spouse
Who needs marriage? Living in sin is more fun and eventually cheaper when the fit hits the shan, I have very good friends that have been together for 50 and 55 years and never married. One asks why marriage is so important,,,,, the churches, the attorney's in the aftermath? Social B/S pressure? Happily living in sin according to many suits us.OMO.Cheers, Steve. -@bigpearl
Yes indeed the church. Probably the largest hypocritical institution in the world today. They preach the importance of marriage which lets face it has always been a profit centre that pays the bills and have lobbied heavily in every country in the world against divorce becoming legalised. The result in the Philippines particularly is many couples end up living 'in sin' to use that ecclesiastical term, precisely because the church kick back heavily against legalising a break up. The result: misery all around. In fact research shows that married couples relationships tend to be more enduring than non married couples.
The church has, and always will be behind the curve in terms of what is best for society. By definition its a conservative organisation that does not reflect the majority views of its people at least in most modern western countries. In the UK they were late to accept divorce, same sex marriages, and now assisted dying which is a current topic in many modern western democracies. Guess what the average church going attendance is here in the UK? 2% . The Philippines in time will come of age and realise the human cost of outdated dogmatic legislation. But don't hold your breath.
Great comments all, BP, Mugteck and Lotus
And maybe in a humorous light ..
"[Feel Free to Disagree] Married Advocates of Divorce"
By Sylvia Estrada Claudio
https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought- … f-divorce/
Take your spouse by the hand and join us as we advocate for the passage of the divorce bill
I wish to announce a momentous event, the founding of the organization (really happily, reasonably happily, tolerably happily) ..
Married Advocates of Divorce (MAD)
Because it is destined to be an organization of great importance within a transformational social movement, I will place on record that it was founded at 12 noon on May 31, 2024. I know the time and place because I brought it up during a meeting of one my feminist coalitions. This was a small working group meeting. Thus I only had three co-founding members in a group of 10 people.
But coalition work immediately began because we got instant support from someone who previously had a happy partnership and someone in a long distance marriage. I must say that in the two days since its founding, it has grown because I had another meeting that day and a lunch with friends.
Other allies include widows and widowers, the happily single, people happily planning their marriages, children of happy marriages and people happily seeking someone to marry.
I expect we will begin to have national scope because of this newspaper column.
Let me now discuss our founding principles:
- Just because it’s right for you doesn’t mean you should impose it on everyone.
- Those of us who really know what it is like to raise children and keep a family together believe that being “conservative” has nothing to do with it. Indeed we see some values touted as conservative as being inimical to family well-being.
- Take for example the conservative value that marriage is sacred and that one partner, often the woman, should just put up with being beaten regularly just to keep the marriage intact. It has been shown that this is very detrimental to the well-being of all, including the children.
- We uphold religious freedom and secularism as enshrined in our Constitution.
Anyone who is happily married knows two things about married life. The first is that you follow the agreements you made during marriage, for example, to love and cherish. Yes, I purposely omitted the “obey” part. If I could have had my way it would be “love, cherish and proceed with consent and cooperation”. But I digress. Second, one must accept differences between yourself and your partner, yourselves and your children.
The same can be said about respectful differences with Catholics and the Catholic Church.
Some of us who are Catholic believe in divorce and some of us are not Catholic. Respecting such differences is enshrined in our contract called the Constitution. Respecting differences and religious freedom is as crucial to national amity as it is to marital unity. We happily married people do not take pleasure in having to remind our senators about the Constitution they swore to uphold and basic facts about religious diversity in Philippine society. But then those of us who have been happily married for decades understand that our lawmakers, like our partners, can be quite forgetful and may need some gentle reminding. Gentle reminding about the Constitution, gentle reminding that allowing for divorce shows us you really understand what a good marriage is all about.
You don’t play the game, you can’t make the rules. I refer here to certain religions whose priests do not marry but who, for some reason, are the most vociferously against divorce.
Those of us who are truly happily married (tolerably happily married, married happily enough) know that some external force, like the law, is not the reason we endure. We need no laws to justify our companionship nor does a law underpin our continuing faith in our bonds. We are blushing now, but I guess we are just real romantics this way.
Benefits
Being very new, we are on a recruitment drive. So let me tell the reader what benefits can be attained by members.
You can assert your nationalism. With this law, the Philippines will join the rest of the entire world that has divorce laws.
You can practice compassion and humility. So we know we are happily married and it’s a great thing. But there’s no need to be smug about it! Many wonderful people who may be superior to us have failed relationships through no fault of their own. Regardless of fault, everyone has the right to be as happy (reasonably happy, tolerably happy) as we are. Also you will open your hearts to the growing number of people who are in abusive marriages. You need not deny their plight and make circuitous apologetics when this is brought up.
You can tout your democracy credentials. Recent surveys show that around 50% of Filipinos support some form of divorce, making choice, not prohibition, the best way to approach the issue.
You can engage with us in spurious speculation during our coffee breaks. We admit to a certain amount of pettiness. It’s how we handle our frustration over idiotic arguments. We assert that being snarky against public figures whom we oppose is a better way of coping than beating up on our spouses.
So, we speculate that those who are against divorce are just truly afraid that when a law comes into effect many of their spouses will be heading for the door. After all, how many of those who are against divorce are known to have had numerous affairs, beat their wives, and neglect their children?
You are immediately welcomed by women’s rights advocates. Because most abuse, neglect and domination in marriage happens to women. And because our current family laws put women at a disadvantage in marriage, the divorce bill counts as a gender equity bill.
Duties
Attend our regular meetings wearing your best snark suits. (See number 4 in the benefits section.)
Say negative things against anti-divorce legislators and positive things about pro-divorce legislators.
You know who you should vote for and against, right?
Recruit other happily married couples.
Be romantic as always. You are allowed to blush while fulfilling this duty.
Join us!
If you are inclined to join, I am serious. We are indeed in organizational meetings and planning sessions. So do wait for further announcements. Let’s test the resolve of these anti-divorce lawmakers. Perhaps they are still open to political pressure. Perhaps they do have the compassion and humility we espouse and can change their stance.
Also, may I remind those who stood up against the reproductive health bill before that they lost that battle. They took a hit because of the very same anti-women and anti-secular arguments they are making now. They also resorted to similar sneaky technicalities like what they are doing to stop transmission of the approved House version to the Senate.
As for the Senate, I put on notice a certain senator who said he opposes the bill because he is like an American conservative. As we in MAD (happily MAD, tolerably MAD) have argued, conservatism of that type isn’t really pro-family. Also that certain senator might want to do a little research and see what Ronald Reagan thought of divorce.
As for another senator who said she is against divorce because she is happily married, she might look at MAD’s number one principle above.
So be on the side of history. On the side of the hip, the cool, the fun-loving, the stable and enduring, the romantic. Take your spouse by the hand and join us as we advocate for the passage of the divorce bill.
– Rappler.com
[Sylvia Estrada Claudio is a doctor of medicine who also has a PhD in psychology. She is professor emerita of the University of the Philippines, Diliman. The views expressed by the writer are his/her own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Rappler.]
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They will eventually allow divorces. It is inevitable.
As soon as they do though, there will be absolutely no reason to get married.
Immigration could be an argument but even that can be mitigated.
Children are the victims here. I believe to do things right, divorces AND MARRIAGES should all be done with the best interests of the children involved.
My children just lost a loving father because their mother thinks she can do better and the government not only empowered her, but incentivized it.
Be careful what you wish for. A society filled with people living with traumatized childhoods will end badly.
Always could get an annulment.
If one spouse is a foreigner and they obtain a divorce abroad, the divorce can be recognized in the Philippines. This allows the Filipino spouse to remarry.
The Filipino spouse must file a petition for judicial recognition of the foreign divorce in a Philippine court. This process legally acknowledges the foreign divorce and updates the civil status of the Filipino spouse in the Philippines.
The cost of an annulment in the Philippines can vary widely depending on several factors, including the complexity of the case, the lawyer’s fees, and the region. Generally, the total cost ranges from PHP 150,000 to PHP 300,000 or more. Here’s a breakdown:
Filing fees: These are the fees paid to the court, usually ranging from PHP 10,000 to PHP 20,000.
Lawyer’s fees: Legal fees typically make up the largest portion of the cost, and they can vary from PHP 100,000 to PHP 250,000 or more, depending on the lawyer’s experience and the case’s complexity.
Psychological evaluation: This is often required for grounds like psychological incapacity and can cost around PHP 20,000 to PHP 50,000.
Miscellaneous costs: These may include document retrieval, notary fees, and transportation, which can add another PHP 10,000 to PHP 20,000.
The process can take 1 to 2 years or longer, depending on court schedules and potential delays.
@Cliff Spark
They will eventually allow divorces. It is inevitable.
As soon as they do though, there will be absolutely no reason to get married.
I'm not sure I follow your logic Cliff. Surely the reason many couples do not tie the knot is because of the punitive restrictive divorce laws in place should they decide to go their own way in future. As alluded to in my above comment marriages, at least here in the UK have a greater longevity than co habiting couples on average. And that is the irony of the current Philippine legislation.
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